You Don't Have to Wear the Crop Top Today: A harm reduction approach to body liberation.

I follow an instagram account of a woman whose body looks vaguely like mine (a strategy I recommend).

Her account is NOT political or liberatory.

It’s fashion.

She earns commissions from the clothes she influences. 

She makes videos where she shows her belly sticking out in one outfit and then shows a dozen other ways to dress so the belly looks less visible.

They’re like before and after shots, except she changes the clothes, not her body.

Which, in this thin-is-in-weightloss-is-everything-GLP-1s-are-miracles climate, is political. A mainstream mid-size white woman choosing publicly not to lose weight? Radical stuff.

To be clear, what she’s offering is for her fellow midsize girlies– people close to thin privilege but not quite there– just a few fashion tricks away from looking thin and getting the perks that go with it. 

I love her account even though “looking thin” is not my ultimate goal.  

Some of my actual goals are:

• To connect ever more deeply with my body

• To learn more about myself and embrace all that I don’t know

• To extend self-compassion to all parts of me

• To experience moments of just totally feeling myself

• To have shit-ton of fun

• To contribute to making the world more awesome for all bodies

For me, these goals fit under the umbrella of Body Liberation.

But some days “Body Liberation” feels like a tall order. Liberate my body? Are you for real?

I know that’s why a lot of people gravitate towards the term “body neutral.” There’s something relieving about not being asked to be positive or negative, just something in between. Low effort. Phew.

Still, I’ve never found “body neutral” to be a particularly inspiring concept. I love a big, beautiful goal and “Body Liberation” and “Body Love” have always held that for me. (Virgie Tovar recently wrote about why she prefers the term “Body Love” and she connects it to bell hooks’ definition of love as a political practice. The piece is gorgeous, strong recommend).

But some days Body Liberation and Body Love feel like I’m supposed to leave the house in a crop top with my belly hanging out, proudly showing it off to the world.  And while I do own a few crop tops, on most days I don’t desire that particular experience.

So then what?

I bristle at the phrase “flattering clothes” – a euphemism meaning the clothes make you look smaller, which supports the cultural narrative that smaller is always better (nope).

Yet I can’t ignore that the culture exists. I can’t unsee the ways that thin people get treated better than larger folks, and how this impacts my own experience of my body.

Learning how to dress in “flattering clothes” can be a body liberation harm reduction approach, something that's better than disordered eating but not quite rocking the VBO. I’d always rather my clients choose to wear “slimming fabric” than to skip breakfast. And while the Visible Belly Outline never has to be the goal, “Does this hide my stomach?” could be just a few hops from “How does this shirt make me feel?” 

This is about releasing black and white binaries, as much as it is about baby steps. I can still hold Body Liberation and Body Love as the goal while feeling different about it on different days. I can ride the waves without much fanfare and meaning making, and have different tools in my closet to support.

Harm reduction can be a powerful tool of self-compassion. While the clothing example may not feel applicable to all bodies, the harm reduction model can apply to anyone: what’s at least a little better for me? How can I reduce harm to myself as I move the needle towards Body Liberation?