Body positivity is an attempt to counteract the negative pressures society puts on people regarding their appearances. This can be on a collective or personal scale. For the former, it could be things like including people of all shapes & colors in advertisements. For the latter, it could be doing something to appreciate your appearance. The idea is to instill confidence in people and help them cherish their natural beauty, rather than resent themselves because they don't fit into same mold as the models they see all over (for women, stick thin, tall, etc.; for men, either super ripped or tall & lanky, commonly). It's an especially popular notion amongst feminist groups (though it's not confined to it either) because the media & society are so detrimental to women's appearances in that they present such unrealistic expectations. Men, of course, receive their own share of unrealistic expectations regarding appearance, so like I said, body positivity isn't at all confined to women.
I'm scrawny, I have odd teeth, and I'm not tall. I'm damn happy about all of that and never envious of anyone I meet. That's body positivity.
Body positivity is caring about yourself and feeling confident with how you are. They really do go hand in hand. If you're confident but don't care enough to stay healthy (healthy, not stick-like(unless healthy is stick-like for you)), then other people won't respect you and that could eventually wear down your confidence. Caring without confidence could make you into a weak, superficial person who is healthy but is constantly putting themselves down on the inside. If you can look in the mirror and say with honesty "DAYUM I'm a sexy beast!", you're probably on the right track.
Body positivism can be regional. For instance, over here in the United States, it is becoming more and more acceptable to be any degree of what BMI would register as "Overweight". There's nothing really wrong with that until the point health problems arise, as they can with a person who is any degree of "Underweight". For most of my life, I have been severely Underweight, and in America, that problem is perceived twice-fold; I have had to deal with a lot of bullying. It's more about wanting to not be weak and not be healthy that I started weight training (I hate sports...Not the general idea, just taking part) in order to achieve a body I could be positive about. I still get told I'm skinny, but I'm the right weight for my frame and bone density and I'm not exactly ashamed to take my shirt off thanks to struggling with Benchpresses and Pushups that I could never do throughout most of my early teen years. Body positivism comes in varying degrees and has a variety of results. Admittedly, sometimes Body Positivism it can be just straight up delusional, like if I were to say that I'm heavily muscled because there's not that much fat on my body. The best thing I can say is: If you are comfortable with your body and you're not risking your health by any means, than this is Positive Body Positivism. If you are risking your health just to be able to feel good when you look in the mirror, then this is Negative Body Positivism. A lot of people have trouble between the blurry line of "I don't care what society thinks of me!" and "Maybe I shouldn't weigh 500 lbs. at 5'0"..." or something like that. I'm all for Body positivism, but with a realist point-of-view. I do not give a flying Heartless about what society deems as appropriate, but I also don't commend eating or starving yourself into an early grave. To me, Body Positivism deals mostly in the realm of what is healthy for yourself.
