Why Being Hourglass Is the Perfect Way to Promote More Body Positivity
Jul 27, 17Human beings come in all shapes and sizes because Mother Nature doesn’t have a predefined caricature for us. But the general perception, heavily perpetuated by the mass media, has always wrongfully advocated a certain body type as the only way a human body can look beautiful. Being thin, skinny or petite is not a problem in itself but when the mass media starts portraying that if you are not thinner, you might not be desirable, it's woefully wrong as it allows women, who don’t belong to that stereotyped body image, to feel bad about themselves.
Enter Body Positivity, a concept which tells us that every body is equally unique, equally beautiful and equally distinct as the other and we should celebrate them all. This concept further beautifully perpetuates the idea that you only need to work towards your own fitness and strive to live a more balanced and positive life, so that you can achieve your goals more easily and happily.
But is enough being done? Probably not, because a “The thinner, the better” or the “Size zero” myth still weighs heavily on the minds of the women of today as the major portion of the popular portion has kept equating thinness with beauty. Women are certainly suffering from this mass body shaming and this, in turn, is compromising their life goals, their aspirations by damaging their confidence and self-esteem to a high esteem.
We definitely need to promote body positivity more but this time, in a much more powerful and impactful way, so that women start appreciating and celebrating their bodies more in a much more concrete and absolute manner.
The best answer towards breaking this stereotype is to push more women towards attaining an hourglass figure. Most people will confuse hourglass as another facet on the stereotyped myth for bodies, but an hourglass figure is a lot more than that and it is the best way to promote body positivity among women.
Female bodies can come in all shapes and sizes and body positivity is the idea which promotes their acceptance and focuses on promoting health and life goals in a better way. An hourglass figure can help women achieve all those aims because an hourglass figure means a slimmer waist, a fitter body and more toned curves.
Being hourglass promotes fitness among women because everyone benefits from lowered obesity, better exercise, and an improved overall health, while it doesn’t necessarily define a spectrum for hourglass for e.g. the “Thin is beautiful” stereotype, always focuses on being thinner as the only acceptable form of beauty, but anyone can have an hourglass figure. From a plus size woman in her mid-forties to a petite young girl in her early teens, vying for an hourglass figure can be a liberating factor for all women to come out of their shells, feel more positive about their bodies and gain more fitness along the way.
Women around the world have actively advocated for the betterment of the lives of their fellow women and have vouched to end the inequality and body shaming that women feel on a day to day basis. Promoting the hourglass figure more can help them immensely in the realization of their goal because it will not just promote body positivity, but will also make women strive more for being more fit.
For e.g. a plus size woman who does waist training while wearing a waist training corset on a daily basis and posts her pictures on social media, by referring to her fitness oriented mindset and taking equal pride on her being a plus size woman, would do wonders on how other women perceive their bodies and help them to come out and celebrate their new found, fitter, body positive image.
As we enter into a digital age, promoting body positivity without having a certain symbolism would be a futile exercise because even if women do understand the concept of body positivity, there is apparently confusion on how to take it forward and bring it to a more massive audience than ever before. Social media can be a great tool in this regard as it will allow us to shape our own trends and build own narratives, just like the mass media has done up till now, but we need an anchor for the portrayal of our goals and the best one among them all is the hourglass figure.
Women promoting the hourglass figure and showing off their fitter mid riffs which they achieved through waist training or more obese women posting pictures on Instagram and Facebook while wearing a waist training corset, could do wonders towards the cause of promoting more body positivity in women.
The hourglass figure can certainly be our rallying cry in our fight against body shaming and allowing women to lead, conquer and make the most of their talents in a world that’s almost waiting to embrace the ultimate power of womanhood.