The pursuit of self-love and acceptance of one’s body, mind, and soul is a key principle that has guided my actions and thoughts in recent years. For countless years I struggled with loving my body, especially in response to society’s encouragement of the “perfect body.” However, there are many individuals who advocate body love and acceptance for all. Through these advocates, I came across one such individual who immediately cemented the ideas I had been attempting to implement in my life. Megan Jayne Crabbe (@bodyposipanda) changed my life for the better and I will always regard her with the highest admiration. Having made contact with Ms. Crabbe, she has graciously agreed to answer some of my questions in order to expose more people to the light of loving yourself. Here are her responses!
For those who are not familiar with your page or message, could you elaborate on your past and how you reached this stage in your life?
I’ve spent my whole life waging different wars against my body. The body image issues started when I was 5 years old, the dieting started when I was 10, and the anorexia nervosa hit when I was 14. I spent two years in and out of hospitals and residential psychiatric units before clawing my way through recovery, but even on the other side, I hated my body more than anything in the world. I thought I was the only recovering anorexic to end up chubby, and the dieting started again. I spent 6 years cycling through crash diets, binge eating, and exercise addiction – I honestly never thought I could be happy with my body until I looked like the airbrushed idea of perfection I had in my mind until I found body positivity and everything changed.
Many people are not familiar with the realm of “bopo.” Would you mind discussing the positivity, acceptance, and joy found in this community and how it has impacted your life?
Body positivity is the idea that all bodies are valuable no matter how well they fit into today’s cultural standards of beauty. We’ve all been convinced that our bodies are ‘too’ something by society, we’re too fat, too dark, too queer, too old, too different. But according to body positivity, we’re not ‘too’ anything, we’re good enough exactly as we are. Finding body positivity was the first time in my whole life that I’d ever considered accepting my body as an option. I thought I just had to diet and hate myself forever! Bopo really has saved my life, and since finding the community I can honestly say that I’m fully recovered.
In one of your social media posts, you discussed your dislike towards the word “sexy.” Your post was equal parts inspiring and reassuring, would you mind sharing your perspective on the word “sexy” and how it hinders the acceptance of one’s body?
For me, the word sexy was only ever used with a hefty dose of objectification. I grew up thinking that sexy was about how pleasing you can be to other people, how well you fit their idea of attractive, which kind of tainted that word for me. I think if you’re able to reclaim the word sexy and feel empowered by it on your own terms then that’s great, though!
How do you stay positive in the wake of photoshopped images on social media, seasonal diet trends, and other things that promote a negative image of one’s body? What is your advice for those who feel sucked into the fake world where only one body type is accepted and praised?
I stay positive by removing as much of the toxic diet culture messages from my life as I can. None of us can avoid them completely, photoshopping and weight loss talk are literally everywhere we turn. But what we can do is curate our social media feeds to be free of it, we can stop reading magazines that make us feel shit about ourselves, we can walk away from diet talk and call out body shaming. Surround yourself with as much body positivity as you can and create a safe online space to go to when you start to doubt how amazing you are. Oh and BOOKS! Some great body positive books are Things No One Will Tell Fat Girls by Jes Baker, Losing It by Laura Fraser, Fat! So? by Marilyn Wann, and The Beauty Myth by Naomi Wolf.
Do you have any words for those who are currently struggling with insecurity and other issues in order to lift their spirits and encourage acceptance?
If you’re struggling at the moment and you feel like you can’t spend any more time at war with your body, I want you to know that you deserve better. You deserve better than spending life hungry and hating your body, and you can change your mindset and become a body positive badass instead. If I can, anyone can.
