I look at media in the early 2000s when body positivity was becoming a popular conversation

Heroin chic characterized by skinny bodies being beautiful exclusively 

And then there’s a movement for people to feel good about not living up to extreme beauty standards but still loving and accepting themselves

They don’t need to develop eating disorders because they feel socially unacceptable and whatnot

I postulate or hypothesize or whatever that Fiona from Shrek was a major player in this movement

Mariah Carey and Alecia Keys talk about body positivity a lot especially during that time

But they don’t have bodies that are anything compared when to the normal person

Fiona does have that normal plump body

And she had ownership and happiness within that and was a ‘boss queen’ doing her thing

Gaslight, Gatekeep, Girlboss

I think it’s one thing in culture to hear ‘Skinny’ or in other ways ‘Unrealistic body’ people talk about how “You should love yourself as you are :)”

And that’s not what I’m talking about right now

Because I think whether you love or hate yourself is all good with me

But I think those people don’t demonstrate loving themselves

They demonstrate plastic surgery, unrealistic body standards, and the opposite of loving yourself as you are

Even though they might be at a place now in life where they love themselves as they are, I don’t think they got to where they are in life doing that.

I think it came later as a result of therapists, life coaches, and surgery.

Those things aren’t available to the people they’re telling to love themselves

Those things aren’t an option for them right now

Fiona represented a character who didn’t comment on loving herself

She didn’t talk about how important it is while not doing it

She went through a journey of coming to self discovery that she would rather love herself and love others and in the context of Shrek, ‘be the ogre’ with her ogre husband

But I think her journey in that movie also relates to how she chose to lover her life rather than try and impress other people with her appearance.

And in Shrek 2, she goes to her parents who don’t know she’s an ogre yet and has to deal with external circumstances related to who she’s chosen to be with and how she chooses to look

This type of story arch for a character highlights the morals of body positivity in my opinion more than people who hate themselves telling you to love yourself.

I think about transgender role models in this way

I think being a badass in my own right is the best way for me to do that

Not using it as a pillar or talking point to become who I want to be

But becoming who I want to be as who I am

In the face of a world that is not fully accepting or is judgmental about people like me

Celebrities who are not gay telling gay people they’re cool too isn’t going to work

Gay celebrities who are badass in their own right will make that change happen

Having those opportunties for oppressed demographics to rise up in that way

There’s still individual role models in communities who will probably light the way for others

I think of Chris from Mr Beast’s videos transitioning and that changed my outlook on believing you can be popular as a man and do it well

Other celebrities have done it

But I watched Chris

Chris from Mr Beast was already doing his thing before she was doing her thing.

It worked, there was some resulting chaos, but it is still working.

That inspires me to try and ‘stand on the shoulders of giants’

Of body positive people like Fiona, gay influencers like Ru Paul, and trans influencers like Chris from Mr Beast

Doing it that way of being badass in your own right and being an example of a human overcoming those circumstances rather than a human who obsesses over them and really doesn’t overcome them in the process of obsessing.