Fit is a Feminist Issue, Link Round Up #69

This is where we share stuff we can’t share on Facebook page for fear of being kicked out! Read why here. Usually the posts are about body image, sometimes there’s nudity but we’re all adults here. Right?

These Naked Yoga Pictures Are Stunning and Not at All Awkward

On her website, Nude Yoga Girl states that she does all of her own work, from the lighting and camera settings to the Photoshopping (she edits out the “necessary things,” like nipples, for Instagram and puts shadows over other places in question). Her boyfriend takes the actual photos. Interestingly, neither her Instagram nor her website reveals her true identity.

It’s not just her photos that caught our eye, though. Her captions and blog posts contain empowering messages about body positivity and self-empowerment like, “I am not what happened to me, I am what I chose to become.” Scroll through some of our favorite shots below, and then hop over to Instagram to view the rest.

These Gorgeous Photos Destroy Ridiculous Stereotypes About Love

Photographer Substantia Jones is gaining a lot of attention for her photo series depicting a broad range of couples in love, from plus-size individuals to LGBT people.

The images were published in Jones’ body positivity photo series,the Adipositivity Project, timed to this year’s Valentine’s Day. People have expressed appreciation for the new additions, which tell the love stories of people of color, people with disabilities, people who are overweight, and people in the LGBT community, to name a few examples.

Your Body Ain’t Wrong, Girlfriend. {67 Untouched Nude Photos

Jes’s mission is to spread the word that we are all different. Images we are shown through magazines and television represent a very small proportion of the true size of women’s bodies and by comparing ourselves we are limiting ourselves and creating a culture of low confidence and low self-esteem.

To spread her message further, Jes teamed up with the photographer Liora K. to present images of 98 different randomly selected women (Jes Baker and Liora K. also participated.)

With no use of Photoshop or any other light or camera tricks to give any false illusions, the women were pictured naked, fully comfortable and fully loving their own unique bodies.

Jes begins her campaign with these words:

“Tell me something. When was the last time you opened up your browser and saw a beautiful image of a body shape that looked just like yours?”

6 Signs Body Positivity Is Winning the Culture Wars

It’s finally happening. You guys, it’s finally happening! The body-positive revolution is happening, and it will be televised… andtweeted, Periscoped, and Instagrammed. I’m usually not this chipper about the state of body acceptance and weight stigma in the world, but too many first steps have been made this year for this whole body-diversity trend we’re seeing to be a fad.

None of the things I’m gonna celebrate here adds up to muchindividually. But together? Together they’re a sign that, as model Ashley Graham said in her TEDx talk called Plus Size? More Like My Size, “This is the generation of body diversity. The current is changing.”

The Death of Body Positivity

Like most social movements, it was bound to be watered down to appeal to the mainstream, but I don’t think anyone expected body positivity to lose this many teeth in what feels like such a short amount of time.

A movement that was founded by fat (above a US size 16) women, a movement driven by the efforts of countless women of colour, a movement that encouraged radical self-love and challenged existing beauty standards, has become completely whitewashed.

i-D recently published a list of the ‘new generation of body positive pioneers’, and the majority of women listed are below the average US dress size, and fair skinned. The one woman listed who would actually be considered fat is Tess Holliday — she’s become the token fat woman for mainstream body positive advocates. No longer are fat women the focus of body positivity; instead, we get just the one representative, and fat women of colour get no representation whatsoever.

This is a very powerful quote to me because it just states that society has a big say in how people look at themselves and how society effects our self confidence: