Why so negative about MMBodyPositive?

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So Mamamia has recently launched a body positive challenge, detailed here: http://www.mamamia.com.au/bodypositive/fernwood-body-image-survey/

It involves six steps over six weeks to change women's negative perceptions of their bodies. Where women post:
1: My face without make up.
2: The body part I used to cover up.
3: What I’m proud my body can do. 
4: My post baby body.
5: My face after exercise.
6: The body shaming comment I won’t let bother me any more.

I immediately thought ‘FINALLY. FINALLY SOMEONE IS DOING SOMETHING ABOUT THIS SHIT-STREAM OF NEVER ENDING GLOSSY GLAMOUR PLASTIC ‘HEALTHY’ SEXY POST-BABY BIKINI BEST BODIES THAT INVADE EVERY INCH OF OUR COMPUTER SCREENS!’

And as you could expect, EVERYONE burst out in applause too!! No. Joking. The cynics (Helen Razer & others) are calling hypocritical face-cream feminism bullshit on the whole deal. Because reasons.

Apparently the MMBodyPositive campaign is a reinforcement of women as commodities, posting make-up free pictures is self-commoditisation and SILLY. And the real work of feminism lies in revolutionary action for improving women's socio-economic status. Further, a lot of women call ‘bullshit’ on the idea that going makeup free is challenging, or that any of this should even be an issue at all. We should all just SHUT UP about bodies, stop obsessing over bodies, then the problems will go away!

OK. Lets work through these issues, quickly, because we got shit to do, like, REVOLUTION:

1. MMBodyPositive may not be an economic revolution; I don’t think it claimed to be one. BUT. Since when does being middle-class disentitle women to having meaningful issues? Does the fact that women are financially struggling mean that we cannot also care for women struggling to cope with body-image pressures - to the point of self-starvation, invasive surgeries, depression, or suicide? Do we really need to compete over which issue trumps the other? OR can we get on with doing as much as we can, and supporting others to do the same?

2. MMBodyPositive is NOT JUST selfies. I agree selfies fuel body-consciousness, but this campaign is not a selfies competition. This campaign is asking women to take back the right to look however-the-heck they want. By posting images of reality online, perhaps we can make a dent in the overwhelming sea of 'glamour' BS that we swim through every time we log onto social media! A recent stat showed women on average are 'body monitoring' (thinking about their looks) every 15 minutes. You might say this campaign just worsens the self-consciousness, but please, how do we address the issue without drawing attention to it? We know that many women feel shit, disordered eating is becoming normal, body dysmorphia is flourishing, we CANNOT attack these problems by talking about rainbows and sunshine. We do need to first look at ourselves in acceptance and change thought patterns, we have to encourage the work of self-acceptance. Sure, some people might misuse the campaign to score points. But please, point out any social change campaign that wasn’t affected by misunderstanding or misuse... And, besides the selfies, the other activities of MMBodyPositive ask women to reject shame they’ve experienced, to focus on their bodies as functional and to normalise their bodies’ roles in mothering. The abhorrent pressures on new mothers cannot be denied, anyone who shines a light on this issue and helps new mums has done a-hellava-lot more than the nay-sayers, I say.

3. MMBodyPositive has started discourse on issues that are REAL and that NEED our attention. Yes, we can agree this is not a campaign for economic revolution. Interestingly, I haven’t come across Helen Razer’s revolutionary social change campaigns myself. But point being, issues related to body image are SERIOUS, they are hurting girls and women, read the recent APA report for an overview. These issues are finally being considered by policy makers thanks to the work of tireless campaigners. Girls as young as 6 years are dieting and worrying about glamour, there is a spike in young women being hospitalized with mental illness, consider the surging rates of eating disorders even in the aged population, reflect on the booming cosmetic surgery rates – and the links between surgery with mental illness including suicide. You need to only take a quick glance at stats to realize the seriousness of this pain and suffering. It also doesn’t take a sociological genius to notice the surge in ‘glamourised’ and sexualised media and intuit that this will impact the populace. When larger portions of young girls suddenly claim their aspiration is glamour modeling than anything else, you can be sure that this media has gone too far. Girls didn’t get these ‘sexy’ ideas from playing outside and climbing trees too much.

4. Showing diversity of women IS a worthy goal:
I’ve only ever come across a few women’s post-baby pics posted online, but I’ve noticed there is a HUGE response. Particularly from women who comment that they ‘have never thought they would see a body like theirs’. Truly, women are constantly being told that there is only ONE type of body allowed, and if you don’t have it, you don’t exist, you are invisible (notice how famous people suddenly hide post-partum until SURPRISE I’M SKINNY AGAIN! DID IT IN TWO WEEKS!!). Sure you could confuse this campaign with commodifying more body-types, or perhaps you could consider the value of normalising a wide-range of body-types such that commoditisation is fruitless, whom are you going to sell the ‘beauty’ products to if women feel comfortable in their skin?

In my discussion with Helen Razer on being anti-MMBodyPositive she queried sociological theories that prove ‘body image’ issues actually exist and are impacting people…

It wasn’t enough to cite renowned author and psychoanalyst Susie Orbach who recently presented in Sydney on the notion of ‘body anxiety’ and the disturbing trends in women’s health as of recent. This is all ‘made-up’ bullshit according to Razer. According to Susie Orbach, however, we do not have the necessary theories to explain the sudden and rampant attack on women’s body image. We currently rely on authors who theorised in earlier decades, and whose theories were developed before ‘glamour modeling’ was even acceptable, let alone in our faces 24/7. We do not have the necessary understanding to explain exactly how the media body-image onslaught is affecting women, but alarming statistics CANNOT be denied.

I realize MMBodyPositive may not appeal to all women; certainly I am not onboard with selfies. BUT, perhaps the fact MMBodyPositive has sparked conversations and shone light on some of these issues means the campaign has already achieved something.

I am quite sure that women who are suffering with body-image shame (and I know many personally) do need media that supports them, women who are suffering in silence and shame cannot participate in revolution, let alone live to their full potential.

Image above: Body Image Movement Blog

http://www.mamamia.com.au/bodypositive/fernwood-body-image-survey/