Body Positivity for Gender Non-Confirming Bodies

Body Positivity for Gender Non-Conforming Bodies - K. Vinya

(a survey styled informative and experience-based article)

The body positivity movement has, for the longest time centred itself around cis-gendered and heterosexual white women. The movement has begun to include women of colour and men in recent times (though there is still a continued absence of both quite often), disappointingly, there has been a noticeable absence and at times harsh exclusion of trans and gender-nonconforming people within the movement.

This has possibly (according to speculation) manifested from the fact that many body positivists practice the concept of radical and unrelenting self-acceptance, a concept that leaves no space to change oneself. Though some people that practice body positivity still support cosmetic surgery, others view it as a submission to patriarchal beauty standards, leaving the idea and very existence of things like nonconforming outward presentation and gender reassignment surgery according to them, in murky waters.

Most cis people have not even paused and considered the fact that body dysmorphia, a feeling that is common among most trans and non-conforming people can be debilitating and uncomfortable, driving them to seek change within their bodies to simply better their quality of life and the way they feel about themselves. They often view it as feeling negative about one’s body, possibly thinking that ‘’they simply have to try harder to accept themselves because it is wrong to change one’s ‘natural’ form’’ however it may harm them.

Dysmorphia is not always in relation to one’s physical appearance as it can relate to how one is perceived by others but it can manifest in the form of physical discomfort. The unrealistic beauty standards that affect cis people, double down on trans and nonconforming people because they are pressured to ‘’pass’’, a lack of which is punished through forms of horrifying violence and transphobia, especially in public spaces.

Despite the fact that gender is a social construct, there are real-life ramifications of how gender is conceptualized in society. Hence, the cost of not fitting into the normative standards of the body can be much higher for transgender people than most cis people can imagine. To interpret transgender people’s desire to conform to their gender as their desire to conform to the patriarchal gender binary is highly reductive.

Another downside is the fact that body positivity can be very gendered, causing the conversations around nonbinary people especially, to be practically non-existent in most spaces. Beauty norms for nonbinary people manifest as sleek, white, androgynous models strutting the runway in loose or non-gendered clothing, leaving most non-binary people to feel a sense of erasure, insecurity, and pain when people refuse to respect their identity because many enby people are not ‘’androgynous enough’’.

As long as body positivity is only about “loving one’s body irrespective of how it looks” rather than “loving one’s appearance that does not conform to gender binaries,” transgender and gender-nonconforming people will not feel at home within the body positivity movement. On a slightly positive note, there has been a rise in body positivity for trans and gender nonconforming individuals in recent years, albeit scarce. This scarcity can only be erased by uplifting and normalizing body positivity for such people.

Body positivity for people of all different kinds can be complicated and nuanced, because the way a person views their body may or may not be affected by mainstream culture, it can be influenced by tradition, the kind of beauty they specifically grew up around, their social environments etc. Some trans and non-conforming people have felt included whereas others have not. The main goal is to make a majority feel like they belong and allow them to grow up around and experience the comfort of having positive role models.

The following people have commented on the relationship that they have with body positivity. (They have been kept anonymous, and their names have been replaced by colors to do so)

?Lilac, a trans nonbinary person said ‘’I have felt body dysmorphia considering that I’m trans-non-binary, I obviously have a “certain” relationship with my body. I remember times when I was forced into doing particular things because of my appearance because of which I used to hate my body. I remember how much I used to hate myself for not being able to live in a body that society categorizes as female. I was even mad at myself for even thinking that I perhaps wasn’t female. I forced myself to believe what society accepts. I forced myself to believe that long hair is what makes me a proper woman, that wearing dresses, painting my nails, and sitting with my legs closed is what makes me a proper woman. I decided to overcome these stereotypes that women had to face when I started believing in feminism so much so that I shoved all my trans feelings aside. It obviously didn’t satisfy me. My body, I still hated it so much. It’s not like I’m at peace with my body now either. I’m still learning things about myself. What I feel is most challenging for me every day is being misgendered because of my body. That is obviously faced by every trans person but what most people don’t know is how much it hurts because of which it starts creating negative feelings towards one’s body. Body positivity movement is definitely something that can make one feel that they’re not alone. A place where everyone is accepted for their actual gender regardless of what their body looks like would be a great place to start spreading awareness about body dysmorphia. I’ve seen society shunning trans women because their bodies don’t look like a cis woman’s, they can’t bear children, or maybe their breasts aren’t natural, they are just shoved aside. A trans man is not manly enough, he can’t be a man because of his breasts. Non-binary people are just nobodies because they belong nowhere. All these beliefs that society keeps feeding everyone continues to spread toxic “perfect body” standards. I have indeed come a long way with my body, but not enough to feel like I’m at peace with my body. Though I do believe if I keep practising body neutrality, I will one day be completely happy with myself. It is honestly very difficult to be unbothered by all these unrealistic standards of society but knowing that there are other people who are through this too, makes me feel like I’m not alone. Knowing that there are supportive people out there also makes me feel less intimidated by the world.?

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Iris, a questioning demigirl/enby person said ‘’In all honesty, I've never felt body dysmorphia. The way I dress and behave is very like a perfect stereotype of a “girl”. The outer world has definitely influenced me into thinking I have to be ‘’not like other girls’’ but I realized it's ok to dress like your stereotypical girl. I actually feel very included because I feel like the main target of the body positivity movement mostly includes my body type and it's becoming more normal for people to accept that enby ppl don't have to look a certain way. Before the entire body positivity thing “girls'' had to look a certain way. It definitely still is there now but just much lesser. It was considered ok for males to be severely overweight but it was never ok for girls to be so. It still is like that but not as much.’’

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Mauve, a genderfluid person said ‘’For me, it's usually because my appearance makes people assume me to be the gender I was assigned at birth and a lot of times I wish I looked androgynous. A lot of times I also wish that bodies just were. Like the idea of "THIS is a male body." And "THIS is a female body." Didn't exist.

My self-presentation hasn't been affected that much but the one thing that has happened is I care a lot less about drastic/outrageous style choices. Because of my identity, I know that I will be drawing attention anyway so why not draw it on purpose and on my own terms? I feel like the body positivity movement is a really good thing because skinny bodies, muscled bodies, thick bodies whatever it may be, they're just bodies. And it's about time we stopped trying to force people into someone's perceived ideal body type. I'll be honest, I'm not always up to date with all the movements going on. Though I will say that I often feel like there isn't much awareness about being genderfluid or just the idea that you don't have to stick to a specific gender/set of pronouns if you don't want to.’’