The Media's Focus on Inclusivity Ends Up Alienating People

The body positivity "controversy" is just one example.

Photo by Huha Inc. on Unsplash

Body-positive influencer Brittani Lancaster shares her history of eating disorders and her ongoing struggles with body image with thousands of TikTok followers. When she started to lose weight after reintroducing exercise into her routine, one of her first concerns was how her fans would react. Exercise and weight loss can be triggers for people who struggle with eating disorders and self-image.

Lancaster has been careful to word her commentary so as not to offend her followers. She refers to her weight loss as “growing into a smaller body.” She also notes that she started exercising primarily for mental health reasons; the weight loss was an unexpected consequence.

As Lancaster continues to navigate the situation on social media, an article titled “What Happens When a Body Influencer Loses Weight?” suggests that it’s not just the size, but also the color, of her body that she has to be aware of:

“The impact of a white body-positive influencer losing weight extends beyond how their followers may receive the change, says Chrissy King, the creator of The Body Liberation Project.”

The article quotes King as saying that a body that changes too much can embrace a “traditional Western beauty standard; i.e., thin.”

“If you’re living in a thin white body, your experience in the world is not the same as someone who’s living in a fat body or brown body or trans body,” King adds.

King says that body-positive influencers have to be cognizant of who such a space was created for: “people with marginalized bodies, especially Black and brown folks….Thin white women should try to avoid distracting from the voices of people with marginalized bodies.”

Anorexia, bulimia and other eating disorders afflict people across color and gender lines. Likewise, the battle to attain a positive body image is something people from all backgrounds experience. The body positivity movement began as a counterattack to the unrealistic images often seen in beauty magazines and on the screen. The idea was to encourage people to love their bodies no matter their size or shape.

Interestingly, the media infiltrated the body positivity movement and decided to divide it into two main camps: “White women” and “marginalized bodies.” This imaginary demarcation forces people of color and trans people to feel dehumanized by the seemingly perfect White woman’s body. Meanwhile, that seemingly perfect White woman crumbles with stress and concern that her journey is perceived as insulting to others.

The result: Instead of feeling good about themselves, these people may experience the exact negative mental health issues they had hoped to escape through the body positivity movement.

And so it goes with many of the sub-groups established in the name of inclusion. By the time they are scrutinized by “experts” in a particular field, they pit people against each other, creating confusion, disappointment, anger and frustration.

In its desire to lift up marginalized groups, some media choose to insult and alienate others. The whole point of inclusivity is to draw people together, but this backward media tactic ends up siloing people who might otherwise find common ground. This type of deleterious journalism is something we definitely don’t need.

Photo by Billie on Unsplash

Hopefully, Brittani Lancaster focuses less on the article mentioned above and more on the positive responses from her followers. “You look so good, not just physically but mentally,” one Instagram follower wrote Lancaster. “Thank you for being so real and encouraging eating and nourishing our bodies,” wrote another follower. This is the kind of positivity Lancaster and others with body image issues really need. Pay attention, members of the media.