Body positivity is out: Taylor Swift and Jameela Jamil are singing the praises of a different mentality. How do we keep up?

You may not know it yet, but body neutrality is the new body positivity.

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What is body neutrality, I hear you say? It’s apparently something that Jameela Jamil came up with, and Taylor Swift is ever so thankful to her for it.

Talking to the DJ Zane Lowe in a recent interview, Swift spoke about the times she was slut-shamed as an aspiring artist, and how her talent was overlooked because she is a woman. Then she praised Jamil: “We have amazing women out there like Jameela Jamil saying, ‘I’m not trying to spread body positivity. I’m trying to spread body neutrality where I can sit here and not think about what my body is looking like.’”

I know what you’re thinking: how are you supposed to keep up? We’ve had body negativity for centuries, then body positivity suddenly came along, and now this? Cast your worries aside – here’s all you need to know.

What is body neutrality?

So whatever body neutrality is, it is not body positivity. Body positivity is old news.

Body positivity was the move to encourage women to celebrate their bodies. People interpreted this message in mixed ways. Some thought it meant celebrating your body by not wearing many clothes, in an “if you’ve got it, flaunt it” kind of way. But many people pointed out this was not very inclusive to people who do not have conventionally beautiful bodies.

Others interpreted it to mean women should be encouraged to celebrate their bodies no matter what they look like. But then people got annoyed that this message was excluding conventionally good-looking people, who are, like, never included in anything. Then people started to think body positivity was just a marketing sham being used to sell women more stuff.

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Body neutrality is, of course, much more nuanced than all of this. It is the idea that women’s bodies should just not be commented on at all. So don’t say: “I love how I look, no matter what you think.” But do say: “I love what I think, and who cares what I look like?”

And Jameela Jamil came up with it?

Well, not exactly. The phrase has been used since around 2015 and was popularized when the fitness coach Anne Poirier started running programs about body positivity in Vermont in 2017.

Then, in 2018, Jamil made an Instagram account called I Weigh, dedicated, among other things, to women posting selfies and writing things they value about themselves that aren’t skin deep. Like having great friends. Or, er, having a net worth of $280m. Here’s an example from Jamil’s Instagram page:

Jameela Jamil’s I Weigh post about herself

Jamil also spoke about body neutrality, and why she doesn’t identify with the body positivity movement, during an interview on The Daily Show in September:

Not objectifying women – haven’t I heard of that before?

There have been some feminists who have already spoken about wanting women to be freed from the shackles of expectation. Jamil isn’t exactly the first.

For example, Barbara Fredrickson and Tomi-Ann Roberts wrote in 1997 about how women internalize the objectification of men and begin to view themselves as objects.

But they crucially missed one thing – they don’t have viral Instagram accounts. So they’re still waiting for that Taylor Swift shoutout.

OK, so now there’s body positivity and body neutrality … how am I supposed to feel good about my physical self?

I’m going to level with you: I’m not sure. I think you’re just supposed to do what feels right to you. While, obviously, using all the right phrases and posting a photo of yourself.