TikTok’s 3 most TikTok-ic trends

TikTok user @stephpappas participating in the “What I eat in a day” trend.

Is online body positivity really inclusive?

According to a Huffington Post poll, 60 percent of people reported a negative impact on their self-esteem due to social media. The digital world undeniably has an effect on the way that both men and women perceive themselves. From Hailey Beiber to Kendall Jenner and their strong online influence, it’s hard to not compare nowadays. As social media influencers become more powerful, negativity regarding body image can be found in just about every comment section.

Body positivity is a topic that the social media app, TikTok, has accumulated over 14.1 billion views for. Like most good things on the internet, this notion has a catch. Girls that tend to be on either side of the weight spectrum are shamed, on differing degrees, for partaking in these trends. 

“It’s a trend now on TikTok to hype ‘different’ body shapes up and tell them that they’re beautiful, but the ‘different’ body shapes you see are extremely normal bodies,” said TikTok user and Saddleback student Sheida Amin. “Having everyone think ‘oh, she’s overweight, but she’s confident’ is so toxic in the sense that they are unknowingly spreading the idea that this size 4 body is overweight, when in reality it is completely normal.”

Women that are deemed “too thin” to participate are called “fishermen” in the comments of their videos, implying they are fishing for compliments. Thick women are called “unhealthy” and “unattractive.” Even the happy mediums find themselves bombarded by negativity in their comments. With extreme double standards, it’s hard not to wonder who exactly this “body positivity” is aimed towards and the TikTok comment sections only make the hypocrisy more apparent.

The “bodies that look like this also look like this,” sound on TikTok features women showing their bodies when posing versus relaxing. Started by the user marycjskinner, this trend was originally intended to spread positivity and make girls feel better whenever they’re looking through Instagram or TikTok.

As more and more women began to use the sound, terms and restrictions began to make themselves known in the comment section. Comments like “this isn’t your trend” or “that is not body positivity, learn the difference” are very plentiful on videos using this sound that are posted by girls on the skinnier side. The commenters display the classic “you can’t sit with us” demeanor when determining whether or not a girl is deemed suitable for this trend.

“Unfortunately, body positivity isn’t as great as people make it out to be,” said TikTok user and Chapman University student Kaylee Brown. “Skinner creators being shamed for ‘thinking they’re a part of the trend’ and bigger people be shamed into losing weight. Even for those who are under or overweight and actively making choices to live healthier lifestyles are still being shamed in the process.”

The #WhatIEatInADay is a trend that has proven to have both serious pros and cons. Influencers that use this hashtag do exactly what it implies, which is show their followers what it is that they eat in a day. Although seemingly simple, the world is full of people who have been through things that others might not even consider or know to be real problems, like eating disorders.

Bigger influencers that use this sound find discourse in their comment sections, whether it be people thanking them for encouraging them to eat or people shaming them for making them feel bad about what they eat, food consumption is a touchy subject and understandably so. The balancing act between promoting a healthy diet and endangering others’ relationship with food is something that could be avoided entirely if the trend were to stop. 

The “hashtag weird” sound comes from a video of celebrities reading mean tweets. “How do you look anorexic and fat all at once? #weird,” read by the Modern Family star Julie Bowen, has taken a far from playful turn on TikTok. 

Girls began posting their bodies under the sound and the commenters decided to take it upon themselves to determine whether or not the girls are fat or skinny. There are the occasional positive comments such as “that’s normal,” but they’re pretty hard to find amongst the “this is a joke” or “pick me girl” comments. 

“Thank you guys so much for reminding me that I am, in fact, not skinny,” one user under the name “sophiamastt” replied to her comment section. “It’s a TikTok and I’m a real person. Please be nice, lol.” 

The TikTok comment section is far more forgiving of girls ranging from midsize to large women than it is to the women on the thinner side of the spectrum. Even then, larger women are shamed for being happy about the way their body looks. If body positivity was really inclusive, there would be no exclusions at all. 

“From what I have seen, the only time people praise those who are plus-sized is when that person has an extremely beautiful face,” said TikTok user and CSUF student Yenví Leduc. “In addition, a lot of people with body dysmorphia will voice their insecurities in TikTok posts, believing that they’re in a safe space. However, others will not acknowledge said dysmorphia and accuse the creators for fishing for compliments.”

Even if a girl looks good, that doesn’t necessarily mean that she feels good about how she looks. For all we know, this girl could be extremely insecure and unhappy about the way that she looks. It should go without saying that no girl participating in these trends wants to be accused of being inconsiderate of others feelings when being vulnerable and showing their bodies.

Sadly, the notion of body positivity on TikTok has proven to be rigged. There is going to be an overwhelming amount of negativity in the comments sections of every video because the people that partake in these trends are, to some varying degree, insecure. They are willing to drag other people down to feel better about themselves.

“Despite what people think or want to think, body positivity is not positive,” said Brown. ” It’s punishing those who dare to do the trends regardless of what their bodies look like. Body positivity shouldn’t be about size or weight, it should be about their bodies.”

The hyper-fixation upon weight is what has turned this idea with good intentions into an extremely toxic environment for anyone who chooses to participate in it. This movement is rarely ever moving in a clear and decisive direction, because the comment section will find a way to hate on whomever participates, regardless of what they look like.

The body positivity movement was started because insecurity is something that runs rampant throughout the minds of just about every female on social media. There is no way of knowing the intentions behind a post, but who are we to assume that it warrants negative feedback? If body positivity is to be truly inclusive and what it promises in the name, then people need to accept everyone’s insecurities and stop the toxicity. 

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