The Post Pandemic Body Is The New Bikini Body, And That’s A Problem
One thing I’ve really appreciated about Covid and studio closures, is that for what feels like the first time, it feels like people are finally making the realization that movement can have a profound impact on improving your mental health. People who may have previously only worked out because they feel like they had to, are starting to focus on how movement (or lack of it) makes them FEEL. Cue me doing a little happy dance on my side of the screen!
Unfortunately, diet culture is creative. I’m probably not the only one who’s seen a rise in messaging and pressure to have some sort of perfect body by the end of the pandemic for your “debut”.
In what I view as a tragically missed opportunity for wellness companies to lean into this newfound enthusiasm around joyful exercise as a way to incentivize their clients and sell their programs, many have done just the opposite. Just as people are starting to have epiphanies about their mental health and a regular movement practice, diet culture has doubled down on its reliance on insecurity and shame in their marketing, when these brands COULD be highlighting and promoting a healthy relationship with your body and movement.
The Post Covid Body Is The New Bikini Body
Instead of the standard bikini body BS this year, there has been a very problematic uptick in fear mongering about how quarantine has changed our bodies. The “Quarantine 15” and the “Covid 19” wordplays may very well be punny and effective ways of capturing your attention and identifying a pain point that our inner child may think needs “fixing” (PSA, your body does not need to be fixed- you’re not a construction project), but what they’re really accomplishing is not motivating you to work out, but encouraging a toxic, potentially disordered relationship with exercise.
In this mostly messed up article in The Atlantic (TW weight shaming), weight scientist Dr. Lindo Bacon even assures the writer that even if your body has changed because of a change in routine and activity, you don’t need to punish yourself with exercise to be healthy, because when your routine changes again, so will your body. The writer chooses to fixate on post pandemic weight loss to fit a beauty ideal over health, instead. Dr. Bacon asserts that weight fluctuates based on circumstance, and that it’s natural for you body to change when your routine does. For those that feel body image panic, once you return to your routine, your body will adapt. However, if you make hating your body the primary reason you exercise and have to bully yourself to work out, the potential adverse mental health effects can be worse than not exercising at all.
Conclusion
If the media and these brands were actually concerned with your health, they would take into account that it’s natural for your body to change when your situation changes, and include concern for your mental health in these campaigns. You’re not lazy or weak for not having the same amount of movement as you did before the pandemic. Your body has adapted to keep you safe. It’s actually worse for your health to obsess about your step count than it is to accept that this is a moment of ebb and flow in your life.
You’re not wrong or bad for having negative thoughts about your body if it’s changed, while this type of marketing can be really biased, fatphobic, and ignorant of body diversity and science, it’s totally human to have emotional reactions to them in a society that values thinness over health.
However, fighting diet culture means noticing these thoughts and acknowledging that they have little to do with your actual health, and that fixating on them can hurt you. If you’ve made it through this pandemic unscathed, you have a lot to be grateful to your body for, and exercising is just one of many ways you can practice that gratitude, if you do it from a place of self compassion, not punishment.
Helen Phelan Studio is a place for you to practice mindful, challenging, and FUN movement without body shaming or diet culture. You can want to work out and work hard and still opt out of diet culture— and there’s a free 10 day trial for you to see what I mean :)
Other Articles You Might Like:
Can You Want To Lose Weight And Still Hate Diet Culture
Fitness Trackers Can Actually Be Bad For Your Health
Dieting Is Not As Good For Your As The Wellness Industry Claims
Working Out To Lose Weight Is The Quickest Way To Burn Out On Exercise