Background: To date, over 1.3 billion videos with the hashtag #bodyneutrality have been viewed on TikTok. Despite this, little existing literature has unpacked how body neutrality is conceptualised on TikTok. We examined how TikTok creators construct meaning and generate discourse surrounding #bodyneutrality.
Methods: Extending on previous works in the body neutrality space, we conducted a hybrid content/thematic analysis of TikTok videos in three different languages (English, Spanish, and Italian). Initially, 300 videos displaying "#bodyneutrality" were identified on TikTok. The first 178 TikTok videos were analysed, following the principles of data saturation and feasibility.
Results: We developed three themes: (1) The normalisation of diverse bodies, (2) The rejection of appearance as fundamentally important, and (3) Body neutrality is (better than) body positivity.
Conclusions: In line with conceptualisations of body neutrality in existing literature, some content emphasised the importance of devaluing physical appearance. Building on existing definitions, most creators also framed body neutrality as speaking to the fundamental humanness of owning a body and attempted to normalise various body shapes/sizes. Conversely, some content employed #bodyneutrality to promote or examine body positivity principles or to condemn appearance-based stigmatisation. Our study is one of the first to examine how body neutrality is understood and employed by people in the real world.
Keywords: Body image; Body neutrality; Body positivity; Content analysis; Social media; TikTok.
Content promoting body neutrality, often shared with #bodyneutrality, has recently become more popular on social media, especially on the widely-used platform TikTok. Consequently, the current study aimed to examine how body neutrality is represented and discussed on TikTok. After conducting a hybrid content/thematic analysis of 178 TikTok videos in English, Spanish, and Italian, we identified three main themes to describe body neutrality: (1) The normalisation of diverse bodies, (2) The rejection of appearance as fundamentally important, and (3) Body neutrality is (better than) body positivity. In the analysed videos, body neutrality content depicted the experience of having a body as fundamentally normal, natural, and human. Moreover, many videos deemphasized the importance placed on beauty in favour of individual characteristics (e.g., hobbies). Finally, some videos compared body neutrality with body positivity, highlighting similarities and differences between the two.
© 2024. The Author(s).