Encyclopedia of Opinion
Question
Has the body positivity movement accomplished anything?
Position1 of 3
Yes, the body positivity movement has had positive impact in the world
Argument2 of 3

Body positivity combats the rise of artificial image-editing from the rise of social media

As the general public becomes more accepting of varied body types, people no longer feel the need to edit images they post of themselves on social media, leading to a rise in personal authenticity.

The argument

As people are pressured to conform to standards of what the ideal body is, they simply adjust by altering the images of themselves that they post on social media. This snowballs the existing problem by convincing the viewers that the photo is actually authentic. Soon, we see a deluge of photos online that have been previously edited so as to convince viewers that they are not, and others feel mounting pressure to conform to the body type. As these behaviors continue, social media, advertisements, and magazine images become entirely constructed of edited images, and we, as a society, forget what it means to have an authentic and unedited body.

Premises

[P1]Pressure to meet ideal-body standards leads people to edit their social-media images and pass them off as authentic, snowballing until feeds, ads and magazines are filled with edited pictures and society forgets what an unedited body looks like. [P2] The body positivity movement pushes back against this deluge of artificial imagery by promoting authentic, unedited bodies. [C] Because it counters the rise of image-editing driven by social media, the body positivity movement has had a positive impact.

Counter-arguments

First, studies show that social media image-editing is as common as it has always been, if not increasing with the rise of social media usage. Additionally, body positivity has only shifted the "ideal body type," where people now edit their images to appear artificially "thick." Impossible beauty standards prevail despite the efforts of the movement.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P1] The premise describes a mechanism by which edited images propagate, which is a claim about social media rather than about the movement — the body positivity movement appears nowhere in the reasoning offered, so nothing here connects the problem to the thing said to address it. [Rejecting P2] Even granting the second premise, promoting unedited bodies is an aim rather than an accomplishment, and the position asks what the movement achieved: no measure of editing prevalence, advertising practice or self-reported body image is offered before and after, which is what an argument about impact requires.