In 2016, the word body activism qualified for the new word list. The movement for a level playing field for all body types exploded on social media, with Instagram profiles sharing images of their large thighs and stomachs amassing hundreds of thousands of followers around the world.
Today, most body activist accounts have either quit or shifted their focus away from body image. And several of the most influential profiles have announced they have left the movement. One of them is influencer and podcaster Cassandra Klatzkow.
When she announced in an Instagram post in 2020 that she was tired of talking about her body, she felt like she had done her part. Now she thought a new generation would take the baton. But that’s not how it happened.
– It’s dead, she answers the question about how body activism is doing today.
How did it happen? Cassandra Klatzkow has thought a lot about the question and has many possible answers: it became out of place to be political on social media, body activism was hijacked by fashion companies that then got tired of marketing themselves with chubby models – and the movement became too much about the activists themselves rather than the issues they were supposed to promote.
When she herself ended the movement, it was mainly about the latter.
Cassandra Klatzkow’s activism didn’t really start out as something political, she believes. Instead, it was about her wanting to overcome the hatred she felt towards her then large body.
– I challenged myself and thought that if I take photos of myself even though I hate my body, I will eventually change my attitude. And it worked, she says.
Over time, her commitment deepened and she became more concerned with breaking the oppression of fat people. Unequal care, the difficulty of finding clothes in the right size, and the constant snide comments you received because of your obesity were things she wanted to put an end to.
Her followers flocked and she became the face of the movement. At the same time, it became clear that followers primarily wanted to share pictures of her body.
Posts in which she dressed more nicely or talked about something else didn’t get nearly as many likes.
– But when I was lightly dressed – then damn, things went great. It made me feel very controlled. I realized that I didn’t necessarily want to love my body, I just wanted to be neutral about it. And I couldn’t be if I had to constantly push it on my social media channels, she says.
She is not alone with this experience. When Ebba Nilsson, who had a well-known Swedish body activist profile under the Instagram name babe_ebba, talks about why she quit, she uses almost exactly the same words.
– I had an idea The more I showed my body, the more free I became because my body didn’t look like typical skinny bodies. But in the end I felt more like I was locked in a compartment. The more skin and fat I showed, the more likes I got. When I posted a post that was funny or clever, it didn’t get nearly as many likes. “It gave me goosebumps,” she says.
Both Cassandra Klatzkow and Ebba Nilsson have lost a lot of weight after they stopped being active body activists.
Ebba Nilsson has deleted her Instagram account. A few years ago, she started a new account where she sometimes shares her newfound interest in running.
– Sometimes someone has written that it is triggering for them. But I didn’t get many critical comments. I’m no longer a profile on Instagram either, she says.
However, for Cassandra Klatzkow, who continued to be active as an influencer on Instagram, the weight loss meant a lot of criticism.
The History of Body Activism
Body activism has its roots in the American “Fat Rights” movement, which emerged in the late 1960s and aimed to combat discrimination against people with fat bodies.
In Sweden, the movement gained momentum with the advent of social media in the 2010s and was closely linked to feminism. Here the movement is primarily referred to as “body activism,” but the term “body positivism” is also used. In the latter, the focus was more on promoting self-acceptance and love for one’s body as it is, while in the former the focus was more on taking social power structures into account.
There was a debate about who could participate in the movement. Some sought to include everyone, including those who are not fat, focusing on individual self-acceptance. Others have argued that it weakens the movement if it also includes bodies that do not deviate from the norm.
Source: The report “Not quite the fight of the normative”: Belonging and entitlement in Swedish “body activism” from the University of Gothenburg 2022.
The reason for the weight loss was to achieve the BMI requirements for having children as a single woman. But many followers saw the photos of her new, slimmer body as a betrayal.
– If you followed someone because they inspired you and helped you like yourself, I can understand how that feels. I’ve always been very open to following me if that triggers you. “I respect that,” she says.
At the same time, she believes that the focus was ultimately wrong.
– It will be a great responsibility if I and my body are to be the reason that other people stand out through their own bodies. It becomes so individually focused. I think the problem is bigger than that, it’s about how fat people are oppressed in society as a whole.
It wasn’t just followers who turned their backs on her when she lost weight. Many companies have also stopped contacting us about paid collaborations.
– It was said that I lost weight because I wanted to make more money, but that wasn’t the case. When I was fat, I definitely made more money from paid collaborations.
But today, when the trend has reversed and fashion companies have returned to paper-thin ideals, she doesn’t think they deserve as much as fat influencers.
Both Cassandra Klatzkow and Ebba Nilsson say they still hold on to the movement’s ideas about addressing physicality and the injustices fat people face.
But none of them long for a renaissance of body activism, at least not in the form of ten years ago.
– The body activism I took part in was still all about living up to the ideals shaped by the male gaze. I wanted them to think I was sexy even though I was fat. I don’t want that anymore. There are so many other things that young women can be. “So in general I hope you can stop thinking so much about your body,” says Ebba Nilsson.
– The dream is not that there are new body activists, but just that bodies are allowed to exist as they are and that women stop being so obsessed with their bodies, says Cassandra Klatzkow.
Do you think you can get there without body activism?
– Obviously we can’t get there even with body activism. What did it actually achieve? Nothing. Because now we are here. “So I don’t think body activism is the solution,” says Cassandra Klatzkow.
Famous Swedish body activists
● Stina Wollter
● Cassandra Klatzkow
● Natashja Psomas Blomberg – Known as Lady Dahmer. Runs the Instagram account @Postpatriarkatet
● Anna-Suvanna Deebang – ran the now-defunct Instagram account @Apan.satt.i.granen. Is now active on the Instagram account @Deebang.
● Linda-Marie Assergård – runs the Instagram account @Lindamarie.
● Ebba Nilsson – was an active body activist on the Instagram account @babe_ebba. Closed and reopened the account and no longer sees herself as an active body activist.
● Karin Kajjan Andersson – She closed her body activist account @Karinkajjan last year.
● Sara Linderholm – runs the account @Sarasongbird. Published last year that she stopped being an active body activist on social media many years ago because she couldn’t handle the pressure.
