Media Literacy Interventions to Facilitate Positive Body Image and Embodiment

This chapter explores the media literacy approach to body image and eating disorder risk reduction through a positive body image and embodiment lens. While most media literacy research in the field to date has focused on reducing eating disorder risk factors, available evidence is discussed for how media literacy programs can impact the physical, mental, and social power domains relevant to the developmental theory of embodiment. The media literacy approach appears well suited to investigations of positive body image and embodiment. While media literacy primarily focuses on reducing the perceived importance of appearance and weight, the mechanism by which this is achieved needs further exploration where it is likely that such “positive” features play an important part.

Positive Body Image in People Living with Visible Differences

Despite a growing body of literature exploring the challenges of having an appearance that is unusual or different from the norm, there has been a relative dearth of research into positive body image among people living with visible differences or disfigurements of any sort. This chapter considers a range of qualitative studies that have repeatedly identified people with visible differences appreciating and respecting body functionality and other personal attributes over outward appearance. These findings, together with the only quantitative study in this field to date, suggest a need to explore the potential benefits of positive body image interventions as a supplement or alternative to current interventions and support for those who are negatively affected by visible difference. Areas warranting further research are also highlighted.

Acceptance, Activism, and Freedom from Bullying

The Internet and especially social networking sites provide potent contexts for the formation of individuals’ views of their bodies and appearance. So far, however, research has almost exclusively focused on the negative aspects of these experiences. This chapter proposes that the online context can also be an influential context for positive body-related experiences. In order to make the online context a more positive arena, appearance-related cyberbullying needs to be stopped. Therefore, this chapter starts with a review of appearance-related cyberbullying and elaborates on what can be done about this growing problem. The second part concerns the positive aspects of body image–defining experiences online, such as body acceptance and body activism movements, which may promote positive body image and embodiment. How the online context may constitute an arena for exploration of alternative ideals, resistant communications, and body activism is discussed.

Promoting a Resistant Stance Toward Objectification

Objectification, or the fragmentation of others or oneself into body parts or sexual functions for scrutiny or gratification, is a destructive force that usurps positive embodiment. Yet, many people defend objectification. This chapter presents a two-prong approach to promote a resistant stance toward objectification, with examples. First, at a cultural level, objectification needs to be delegitimized by defusing or redirecting the threat (threat is sexual objectification), framing sexual objectification as already happening and offering ways to challenge it (e.g., #MeToo), helping people and businesses perceive that their outcomes are not dependent on objectification being sustained, and encouraging people to feel that they do not need to rely on objectification to feel personal control. Second, at an individual level, self-objectification (gazing at the self as an objectifier would) needs to be prevented by helping girls and women develop a schema to contextualize (rather than internalize) objectification and cultivate an embodied identity.

Intuitive Eating

Intuitive eating involves being connected to, trusting in, and responding to the body’s internal hunger and satiety cues. This chapter first details the 10 principles of intuitive eating. Next, the chapter reviews the original and revised Intuitive Eating Scale (the IES and IES-2, respectively), which have been shown to yield reliable and valid scores in samples across different cultures. The chapter then discusses research and interventions on intuitive eating, revealing that it is an adaptive way of eating and living. The chapter ends with seven insights gleaned from intuitive eating research that can be used to situate and guide future investigations. Specifically, intuitive eating is grounded in body acceptance, is dependent on trust in internal body cues, is sabotaged for some individuals, is nurtured in autonomy-supportive environments, is intricately connected to self-compassion, can be taught (even among those with eating disorders), and is not positively associated with overeating.

Broad Conceptualization of Beauty

A theme of broadly conceptualizing beauty has emerged in interviews of adolescent and adult women who espouse a positive body image. Broadly conceptualizing beauty is perceiving many looks, appearances, and body sizes/shapes as beautiful and drawing from inner characteristics (e.g., confidence) when determining an individual’s beauty. This chapter first discusses the relevance of broadly conceptualizing beauty to theory, research, and practice on girls’ and women’s positive embodiment. Next, this chapter presents the Broad Conceptualization of Beauty Scale (BCBS), which assesses women’s attitudes toward other women’s beauty. The BCBS has been shown to yield evidence of reliability and validity among community samples of women. It can also be combined with an item from the Body Appreciation Scale-2, which assesses self-beauty, to obtain a more comprehensive assessment of women’s tendency to broadly conceptualize beauty (i.e., within themselves and others). The chapter ends by discussing future research and clinical considerations for this construct.

Public Health Interventions to Facilitate Positive Embodiment

Public health approaches constitute a potentially powerful avenue for universal prevention and efforts to promote positive embodiment and body image. A small number of public health interventions have aimed, directly or indirectly, to increase these positive ways of inhabiting the body. The present chapter reviews public health interventions at the national and local levels, as well as industry-led efforts, that have the potential to positively impact embodiment, by first considering initiatives that have specifically targeted body image factors and second considering those that have targeted protective factors for positive embodiment. While few evaluative data are available, the strengths and limitations of existing programs are considered.

Feminist and Social Justice–Informed Approaches Toward the Enhancement of Positive Embodiment

While feminist and social justice perspectives suggest that positive body-anchored experiences are centrally linked to social equity and power, this lens has not been widely embraced within the body image and eating disorders fields. Key elements in feminist- and social justice–informed health promotion approaches to positive embodiment relate to the (a) goals, (b) content, (c) process, and (d) assessment of health promotion interventions. The chapter discusses each of these four key dimensions and related interventions in the field of body image and embodiment. Such approaches can target varied social domains and institutions, all the way from widely disseminated values and laws to specific interventions with schools and families. Further, they can enrich the fields of body image and eating disorders by informing etiological theories of embodied well-being and distress and health promotion initiatives.

Promoting Positive Body Image and Embodiment in Schools

Body image programming has been implemented in schools to varying degrees of success, but to date, no programs specific to positive body image have been developed and evaluated. This chapter reviews programs that have been effective in improving body image to determine whether the elements of positive body image and embodiment have been present in program content. Some elements of positive body image, such as media literacy and critiquing stereotypes, were present in all five programs conducted with children (<12 years), and all eight programs conducted with adolescents (13–18 years). Additionally, agency (through activism and voice) and broadly conceptualizing beauty were often present in children’s programs, and resisting objectification and agency were often present in adolescent programs. Only one program included the Body Appreciation Scale as a measure of program effectiveness. Potential future directions for programs are discussed, including the incorporation of positive movement, mindfulness, and self-compassion.

The Practice of Yoga

Body image concerns, disordered eating, and eating disorders are of public health concern, given their high prevalence and adverse health consequences. Yoga may offer a tool for addressing these concerns given its underlying tenets and its increasing popularity. The practice of yoga involves both physical and mindfulness components. The physical aspect of yoga can involve varying degrees of cardiovascular and muscular exertion and can be adapted to meet different needs, skill levels, and body sizes. Thus, if yoga is offered within a supportive environment, yoga practitioners can learn to move in a manner that suits their individual bodies. The mindfulness component of yoga provides an opportunity for yoga practitioners to connect with themselves and their bodies in a positive and compassionate manner. This chapter includes a description of yoga and its potential for leading to a positive body image and greater embodiment.