“What can your body do?” : How brands and organisations can support women’s body confidence by focusing on body functionality
Written by: Dr. Jessica M. Alleva, PhD
“To promote body confidence among women, I advise clients to help women focus on what their unique body is able to do, and why those functions are meaningful, rather than just on how they look. This approach can be championed in innumerable ways across brand campaigns and initiatives.”
When I started researching body image, now over a decade ago, I conducted a very simple experiment. Namely, I asked people to “describe your body.” Then, I analysed the content of what people wrote. What was striking is that women tended to describe their body only in terms of how it looks, and these descriptions tended to be negative. In contrast, men tended to describe their body in terms of what it could do, and their descriptions tended to be positive. This led my supervisors and me to wonder:
“What would happen if we encouraged women to reflect on what their body can do, rather than on how their body looks? That is, what if we asked women to appreciate their body functionality?”
Since then our research has shown that focusing on one’s own body functionality can contribute to improvements in body image, potentially by helping to counteract societal and internalised pressures to emphasise one’s appearance. Encouragingly, a recent systematic review of the literature—including both our own studies and those conducted by other laboratories—has shown that the functionality-based approach is currently the most effective approach to improve positive body image.
Our research has also underscored that body functionality is not an able-bodied construct. It comprises six key pillars that reflect the complexity and diversity of body functionality (which I describe later on in this post). Even when people experience limitations or changes to their body functionality, they can still experience positive body image when they appreciate what their own body is able to do, and when they conceptualise body functionality holistically.
My recommendations to brands and organisations on how to help women feel good about their bodies using a functionality based approach
Based on the research to date, I advise clients to help women focus on what their unique body is able to do, and why those functions are meaningful, rather than just on how they look.
This approach can be championed in innumerable ways across brand campaigns and initiatives. Here are just a few examples of how a body functionality approach can be incorporated into your strategy:
Advertising campaigns for athletics equipment and clothing could emphasise women engaging in physical activity and their enjoyment of that physical activity, rather than emphasising the appearance of their bodies. Importantly, women with diverse physical characteristics (e.g., in terms of age, ethnicity, physical ability) should be represented. An excellent example of such a campaign is “This Girl Can” by Sport England. In fact, recent experiments have shown that exposure to the campaign’s videos can help women to feel more positively about their body.
Campaigns for clothing and cosmetic products could emphasise how these could help women to care and support the functioning of their bodies, and how they contribute to women’s physical comfort, rather than (only) how these affect their appearance.
Organisations that provide educational and recreational programmes could embed a functionality-based focus within their activities. For example, within creative or nature-based activities, girls could be encouraged to reflect on the importance of their body functions (e.g., sight, touch, movement) as these support them to carry out and enjoy these activities. Programmes that aim to foster an adaptive relationship to food and eating should emphasise appreciation and care for body functionality, rather than appearance and body weight.
The Research Behind Shifting our focus from “What does my body look like?” towards “What can my body do?”
Experiment Number Two
After our study where we asked women to describe their bodies and found that they almost exclusively focused on their looks, in our next experiment, we randomised another group of women to write about
their body’s functionality (e.g., how their arms allow them to paint) or
their body’s appearance (e.g., what their stomach looks like), or 3) a neutral topic (eg., their commute from home to school or work).
We found that young women (18-30 years) who wrote about their appearance felt less positively about their body, whereas older women (30-50 years) who wrote about their body functionality felt more positively about their body.
We reasoned that younger women might need more practice in shifting their attention away from “What does my body look like” to “ What can my body do”. This is not surprising given the enormous societal pressures that are placed on women, particularly younger women, to focus on their appearance.
Experiment Number Three
Therefore, in our next experiment we developed an online, three-session intervention called Expand Your Horizon, which aimed to help women adopt a functionality-based way of thinking when it came to their bodies.
Across a series of writing exercises, women aged 18-30 who had heightened body image concerns were asked to reflect on their body functionality, and why their body functions are valuable to them.
Based on our initial experiments, we knew that participants tend to conceptualise their body functionality according to six key “pillars,” and so we designed Expand Your Horizon to cover two of these pillars per writing exercise:
Physical capacities (e.g., walking, stretching, lifting)
Internal processes (e.g., digesting food, absorbing vitamins, healing from a cold)
Creative endeavours (e.g., drawing, singing, taking pictures)
Bodily senses and sensations (e.g., seeing, hearing, feeling pleasure)
Communication with others (e.g., via body language, eye contact, hugging)
Self-care (e.g., showering, brushing one’s teeth, sleeping)
This might sound like…
“My arms allow me to cuddle my children and this brings me a lot of joy and a lot of comfort.
“I love the feeling of receiving a massage and how my muscles relax.”
“I enjoy taking care of my body by using a great smelling moisturiser. Not only does the scent give me pleasure, but I like the way my skin feels afterwards.“
“If I couldn’t use my hands to write, I don’t know where I would be. Journaling and writing poetry has always been a key form of self-expression for me.“
We found that, compared to women who engaged in another body image-related activity, women who completed Expand Your Horizon experienced improvements in their body image. For example, they felt more satisfied with the appearance and functionality of their body, and felt more appreciative and respectful toward their body. These positive effects persisted at 1-week follow-up.
Experiment Numbers 4, 5, 6 and so on…
Since this time, we have tested Expand Your Horizon among other groups of women, and have found similarly positive effects on their body image, even at 1-month follow-up. Notably, we have also tested Expand Your Horizon among women who experience limitations to their body functionality (women with rheumatoid arthritis). These women also experienced the benefits of Expand Your Horizon. This underscores that it is valuable to emphasise what one’s body can do—even though it may not function as it once did, or as one would “ideally” like—and to think about the functionalities holistically (i.e., not limited to physical capacities or internal processes).
OK, body-functionality is helpful, but how is it helpful?
In addition to testing whether focusing on one’s body functionality can improve body image, it is equally important to consider how this approach might work. Namely, the functionality-based approach to improving body image is rooted in objectification theory (Fredrickson & Roberts, 1997), one of the most well established theories within the body image field. This theory proposes that from a young age, women are valued and evaluated based predominantly on their appearance. In turn, they are socialised to value and evaluate their own body based predominantly on its appearance; this tendency is referred to as self-objectification. Self-objectification contributes to mental health risks for women, including negative body image and disordered eating.
We theorised that focusing on one’s body functionality, and why it is personally meaningful, could help women to counteract the tendency to emphasise the appearance of their body, and to instead develop a more holistic perspective toward their body. In support of this notion, our studies have shown that Expand Your Horizon leads to reductions in self-objectification and to women conceptualising their body in more complex, holistic terms.
As an expert in psychology, body image and body functionality, and an Associate Consultant at EVERYBODY Consulting, I look forward to working with our clients to discover personalised ways that they can optimally protect and promote positive body image through their campaigns and initiatives by championing an appreciative, functionality-based perspective toward the body.
Meet Jessica
Canadian born, Dr Alleva lives in the Netherlands, where she is the leading body image researcher at Maastricht University. With a PhD in Psychology, she’s pioneered new ways of thinking about how we enhance our relationships with our bodies.
Dr Alleva’s work has impacted people across the globe, particularly underrepresented and underserved groups. This includes working with gender diverse individuals, those living with chronic illness, and pregnant and postpartum women. She’s an Associate Editor at the leading academic journal Body Image and a writer for Psychology Today.
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