7 Seemingly Empowering Body-Positive Phrases That Actually Reinforce Ableism

Ultimately, “as long as you’re happy and healthy” just moves the goalposts from a beauty standard to equally finicky and unattainable standards of health and happiness. All of us deserve peaceful relationships with our own bodies, regardless of whether or not others perceive us as happy or healthy.

2. “Your body is an instrument, not an ornament.”

This popular phrase defines body positivity very literally in terms of ability. If your body is an instrument, defined more by its utility than its beauty, what message should disabled people take away from that? Like as long as you’re healthy, defining your body as an instrument, not an ornament cuts out people whose relationships to their body are shaped, even just in part, by their disabilities.

3. “I’m body positive as long as you’re not obese” or “I’m body positive, but…”

If, as many contend, body positivity is a populist movement, then our willingness to embrace different bodies—even when they don’t look or operate the way we think they should—shouldn’t come with caveats or exceptions. But when we carve out disabled people and very fat people as not “qualifying” for body positivity we’re very clearly stating that only some bodies are worth accepting and that that acceptance is contingent on the accident and privilege of appearing healthy and abled.

It’s worth noting, too, that to many fat people, “obese” is far from a neutral term. In its Latin roots, “obesity” literally translates to “having eaten oneself fat.” The phrase is used in the Body Mass Index—a tool with racist roots that was never designed to assess individual health. A growing number of fat people do not consider “obese” to be a neutral term, and some consider it a slur. “Obese” is the world that was used to declare war on fat bodies in our national “war on obesity,” and to declare our bodies pathological in the rhetoric of the “obesity epidemic,” which themselves spawned countless public policies that further and legitimate anti-fat stigma. It is used freely and loosely to separate “acceptably” fat people from unacceptably fat people—those whose bodies we simply find repulsive, then decide to medicalize to justify our disgust. For some fat people, it is hurled at us in threats and moments of violence. And it hails us into a medical system that, for many, has caused profound trauma and denial of even the most basic health care.

4. “We celebrate ALL bodies” or “All bodies are good bodies.”

These phrases, rallying cries for fat activism and body positivity alike, are often paired with images. Those images rarely include any indication that they feature disabled people. If you truly “celebrate all bodies,” make sure you’re showing all bodies: people with mobility aids, people with visible disabilities, disfigured people, trans people, nonbinary people, dark-skinned people, very fat people. Claiming to stand up for “all bodies” is great! But it’s on us to use images that underscore that point—rather than quietly erasing the bodies that are most frequently forgotten or demonized.

5. “My bloodwork is perfect. I’m probably healthier than you!”

As a fat person, I get it. We’re constantly on the receiving end of anti-fat bias that is thinly veiled in “concern” for our health. But as many fat people know, concern-trolling about fat people’s health is hurtful, harmful, and often disingenuous. Telling fat people you’re “concerned about our health” isn’t anything we haven’t heard before, nor is it anything we haven’t worried about for ourselves. Someone claiming they’re “just concerned for our health” has often found a socially acceptable way of voicing their bias and disgust at the sight of bodies like ours.

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