body policing

I think anyone who helps others embrace and love their body in order to change our societal standards of beauty is ultimately doing a good thing. But I am very uncomfortable with the way that some body positivity advocates take “body positivity” to mean “You can’t care about what you look like,” or “You can’t care about your weight,” or “You can’t ever try to lose weight” I want to ask: Why not?

For centuries — since the days of ancient Egypt, in fact — women have been going to immense lengths to remove their body hair. Plucking, shaving, buffing, stripping and even burning away that supposedly “unsightly,” “masculine” thicket of fuzz. But now, women are being encouraged to embrace their body hair in a thoroughly 21st century way: a viral hashtag.