Lena Dirscherl, who is known online as BoPoLena, is an artist and body acceptance activist, and they can perfectly blend the two together.
Recently, BoPoLena has been working on an illustration series dedicated to the male body. More specifically, the struggles that come with it—both internal and external.
"It seems I've struck a nerve with this message: body positivity is not only for women," BoPoLena said. "No, it's for all genders! Men also suffer [from] diet culture and the pressure to look as 'attractive' as possible. But you all are already beautiful! You are great the way you are! You don't need diets or gyms to be worthy! You are already worthy and loved!"
More info: bopolena.com | Instagram | Patreon
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BoPoLena started drawing and posting body positive messages every week on Instagram in August 2016. "I realized very quickly that most people assume that body issues, eating disorders and the struggle for acceptance are 'women's issues,'" BoPoLena told Bored Panda.
"[But that] is not true at all! However, that might be the reason why the body positive community online is dominated by white able-bodied heterosexual cis women. Which I think is ironic since the whole movement has its origins in the Fat Acceptance Movement which was led by black women and people of color."
YES. Men crying is deemed too feminine, and that seriously needs to stop. Crying is just a natural thing that people do, and it isn't okay to just bottle up your emotions to seem more like a man. If anything, people should be more feminine if this is what comes of being masculine.
BoPoLena isn't the only soldier on the front. In recent years, male celebrities, including Chris Pratt, Ed Sheeran, and Robert Pattinson have been increasingly vocal when it comes to insecurities about their looks.
And it's been long overdue. Research by psychiatrists at UCLA shows that overall, people nowadays feel worse about the way they look than they did in the 1970s.
The problem concerns not just college guys hitting the gym to try to get a date: around 90 percent of boys in middle and high school exercise at least occasionally with the specific goal of bulking up. It's about time we start speaking about it more.
And neither are the pictures you see on Instagram. Lighting and angles matter, and also, people (like me) tend to suck in their stomachs.
As you can see, BoPoLena features a very diverse set of characters in their work. "In each of my series, I focus on a different group that hasn't been represented very well in the BoPo community yet. I did an illustration series on men, on non-binary folx, on intersex people and my next series will be on trans people of all genders."
The artist also plans to tackle disabilities and chronic illnesses in the future but they still need to do more research on these topics. "I'm always in close contact with people of the groups that I try to represent in my art in order to amplify their voices."
BoPoLena says it's their goal to spread body positivity for all people, in all bodies, so that everyone can feel represented in the movement, and if you ask me, they're doing one heck of a job.
Really? I'm 5'6 / 171cm tall, so why does everybody hate / reject / despise me because of that?
A moderate amount of femininity is attractive, to be honest. But tastes vary by individuals anyway, so just try to be comfortable with who you are. If you keep your aesthetics and mannerisms for others, there's always going to be someone who doesn't like you, so not worthy bothering for that.
I don't understand why crying is considered feminine, boys can cry too
That's just genetics, not whatever standard of "manliness" applies to having a beard.
I know this is specifically referring to intersex people, as explicitly stated within the picture. However, I'd really like to point out how someone's voice - whether it's talking or singing - can really be an amazing charming point that can do wonders to a woman/man's psyche. When talking about attraction, the topics tend to put so much focus on the visual parts of the body, and the voice is often overlooked, but it can be such a strong point sometimes.
I'm so damn glad to see something so affirming and toxicity-battling as this for males: there is a fair amount for women, but very little for men! I'm bookmarking this for my son
So, please, just treat the men around you correctly, and with understanding of them not only as individuals but also as men, whether grown or otherwise but according to their age and status, and spare everyone the posturing. THAT is what is wrong with the world today. It's like eveyone is on reality TV. We saw it coming. Then we forgot that we saw it.
Load More Replies...I really, REALLY needed this today. So much so that after 10 years of lurking, this is actually my first ever BP post.
It is wonderful to see this kind of positive messages for men and boys! Toxic and sexist ideas about masculinity really harm a lot of men. We need to teach this things in school to all kids.
I love how in every pro women roghts post there are twenty misoginistic trolls whining about "we never have nice posts about men". But then when bp makes posts about men they are never here. It is almost as if they dont care about men and only use that as an excuse to attack women... hmm..
Load More Replies...I'm so damn glad to see something so affirming and toxicity-battling as this for males: there is a fair amount for women, but very little for men! I'm bookmarking this for my son
So, please, just treat the men around you correctly, and with understanding of them not only as individuals but also as men, whether grown or otherwise but according to their age and status, and spare everyone the posturing. THAT is what is wrong with the world today. It's like eveyone is on reality TV. We saw it coming. Then we forgot that we saw it.
Load More Replies...I really, REALLY needed this today. So much so that after 10 years of lurking, this is actually my first ever BP post.
It is wonderful to see this kind of positive messages for men and boys! Toxic and sexist ideas about masculinity really harm a lot of men. We need to teach this things in school to all kids.
I love how in every pro women roghts post there are twenty misoginistic trolls whining about "we never have nice posts about men". But then when bp makes posts about men they are never here. It is almost as if they dont care about men and only use that as an excuse to attack women... hmm..
Load More Replies...