“Trends can come and go. Skinny can come and go. There’ll be a new trend. In the 50s it was to be curvaceous like Marilyn Monroe, and then in the 80s it was have wide shoulders and be athletic. There’s always going to be something thrown at us.”
After years of hating her body, Brumfitt trained for a bodybuilding competition. She believed if she achieved the “perfect” physique, she’d finally be happy.
“I punished my body to look a particular way, and I realised that health is not just physical. It’s mental, it’s spiritual, it’s emotional. And actually, how I look doesn’t make me happy.”
The experience inspired a now-famous reverse before-and-after photograph that launched a global conversation about body image in 2013.
These “before and after” photos of Taryn Brumfitt went viral and kickstarted her work as a body positivity advocate.
More than a decade later, Brumfitt believes many people are still fighting battles against themselves they were never meant to fight.
“We were not born hating our bodies. It’s something the world has taught us. If you reflect back to really young kids and they hear music, they’re dancing. If they see a sprinkler, whether they’ve got clothes on or not, they’re running through it. That’s actually who we are before the world gets to us with the messages.”
According to Brumfitt, the solution is to shift attention away from how bodies look and towards what they can do.
“If everybody could just focus more on the feeling and the functionality, I think that’s the real opportunity.”
Brumfitt says that philosophy becomes even more important as people age through puberty, pregnancy, illness, menopause and countless other life stages.
“If we can make peace with the fact that our bodies will evolve and our bodies will change, and the least interesting thing about us is the way we look, I reckon there’s a whole lot more joy for people to experience.
“We were not put on Earth to hate our bodies. We were not meant to be at war with our bodies,” Brumfitt says.
“I have not met anyone who’s learned to embrace their body and regretted it. It feels very good. There’s not a single reason why you would not want to embrace your body.”
Listen to the full episode of The Little Things for more on:
Why body acceptance is linked to better health outcomesThe parenting habit that can shape a child’s body image for lifeHow social media and pornography are influencing our young people
The Little Things is available on iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. The series is hosted by broadcaster Francesca Rudkin and health researcher Louise Ayrey. New episodes are available every second Saturday.