What is the sports bra squad?

How it started…

TLDR: My road to feeling comfortable running in my sports bra has been anything but sexy. Ditching diet culture and working towards body image resilience has been anything but easy.

I’m Kelly Roberts, and in 2016, I started the #SportsBraSquad, a movement that started as a celebration of body positivity but grew into something much more profound. We now understand that true empowerment goes beyond just feeling good about our bodies. It's about unlearning deep-seated societal norms, ditching diet culture, and embracing the true strength, diversity, and resilience of our bodies.

The Birth of the Sports Bra Squad

In 2016, I started the Sports Bra Squad as a body positivity movement. The idea was simple: encourage women to run in their sports bras without feeling self-conscious. It was about celebrating our bodies, no matter their shape or size, and feeling confident in our skin. At its core, it was an empowering message of self-acceptance and defiance against societal pressures.

The Evolution of Body Positivity

As the movement grew, so did our understanding of body positivity. Initially, it was about being positive about our bodies. But we quickly realized that body positivity isn't just about loving how we look. It’s about unlearning the harmful beliefs that society has instilled in us. It's about recognizing and rejecting fatphobia, understanding the sexualization of women's bodies, and learning to navigate the complex issues around diet culture and body image resilience.

Understanding Fatphobia and Its Impact

Fatphobia, the irrational fear and hatred of fat bodies, is deeply ingrained in our society. It leads to discrimination and negative stereotypes about people based on their size. This bias isn't just harmful; it perpetuates a cycle of shame and self-loathing. Unlearning fatphobia is essential for embracing true body acceptance. We must recognize that you can’t tell how healthy or unhealthy someone is by looking at them. Health is not a look. It’s a lifestyle. And that lifestyle will change with you from year to year.

The Sexualization of Female Bodies

When I started the Sports Bra Squad, I didn’t know how to talk about the challenges surrounding the sexualization of female bodies. For so many women, running in a sports bra isn’t something they feel comfortable for doing. From true violence against women to sexual harassment, women are often portrayed primarily as sexual objects, reducing their value to their physical appearance. This objectification undermines our autonomy and self-worth. EVERYONE should be free to run in whatever is most comfortable for them. Our bodies are our own, free from societal judgments, expectations, and violence.

Ditching Diet Culture

Diet culture is pervasive and damaging. It promotes weight loss at any cost, often prioritizing thinness over health and well-being. This mentality fuels weight cycling, also known as yo-yo dieting, where individuals repeatedly lose and regain weight. This cycle is not only physically harmful but also detrimental to mental health. The Sports Bra Squad advocates for ditching diet culture and embracing Health At Every Size (HAES).

Embracing Health At Every Size (HAES)

HAES is a movement that promotes the idea that health and well-being can be achieved regardless of body size. It emphasizes body diversity, intuitive eating, and joyful movement. Instead of focusing on weight loss, HAES encourages healthy behaviors and a positive relationship with food and exercise. It's about respecting and valuing all bodies and rejecting the notion that thinness equates to health.

Addressing RED-S and Low Energy Availability

Running is an especially tricky sport for body image. For years, we’ve been shown in media what a runner’s body looks like: slender and thin. This unrealistic body type for so many runners leads to an unhealthy relationship with diet and exercise. Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport (RED-S) is a condition caused by insufficient caloric intake relative to energy expended in exercise. It affects physical and mental health and performance. Low energy availability can lead to hormonal imbalances, metabolic issues, and decreased bone health. The Sports Bra Squad promotes balanced nutrition and healthy fueling practices to prevent RED-S and support overall well-being.

Overcoming Body Comparison

Body comparison is the act of evaluating our own bodies against others'. This can lead to negative self-perception and body dissatisfaction. It's fueled by unrealistic beauty standards and social media. Overcoming body comparison involves recognizing our unique qualities and focusing on our individual strengths. The Sports Bra Squad encourages women to celebrate their own bodies without comparing them to others.

Challenging Western Beauty Ideals

Western beauty ideals often emphasize thinness, youth, and specific facial features. These narrow and unattainable standards exclude diverse body types and lead to body dissatisfaction. The Sports Bra Squad challenges these ideals by celebrating body diversity and promoting a more inclusive definition of beauty.

Body Image Resilience

Body image resilience is the ability to withstand and recover from challenges to our body image. It's about developing a healthy relationship with our bodies, recognizing our strengths, and appreciating what our bodies can do. It's not enough to just run in our sports bras; we must learn to appreciate and love the strength our bodies possess.

The Importance of Body Acceptance

Body acceptance involves recognizing and appreciating our bodies for what they are, without striving for perfection. It's about letting go of negative judgments and focusing on what our bodies can do. This shift in perspective is crucial for building a healthy body image. When we accept our bodies, we free ourselves from the pressure to conform to unrealistic beauty standards.

The Role of Body Image Neutrality

Body image neutrality is a concept that promotes a neutral stance towards our bodies. It's about focusing less on appearance and more on what our bodies can do. This approach reduces the emotional impact of body appearance and helps us develop a healthier relationship with our bodies. It's a middle ground between body love and body hate, emphasizing functionality over looks.

Understanding Self-Objectification

Self-objectification is when individuals internalize an observer’s perspective of their own bodies, prioritizing appearance over their own feelings and experiences. This can lead to body shame and decreased self-esteem. Overcoming self-objectification involves reclaiming our bodies as our own and focusing on how we feel and what we can do, rather than how we look.

Acknowledging Size Privilege

An important aspect of our journey is recognizing size privilege. Size privilege refers to the societal advantages that come with having a body that fits within the narrow standards of acceptable size. Individuals with size privilege may not experience the same level of discrimination, stigmatization, or bias that larger-bodied individuals do. Acknowledging this privilege is crucial in our fight for inclusivity and body neutrality. It helps us understand the varied experiences of different body sizes and fosters empathy and support within our community.

Moving Towards Body Image Resilience

Ditching your shirt, joining the Sports Bra Squad, and “faking it til’ you make it to body image resilience and neutrality” isn’t the goal. The journey towards body image resilience involves several key steps:

1. Education: Understanding the harmful effects of fatphobia, diet culture, and body objectification.

2. Unlearning: Challenging and rejecting societal norms that promote body dissatisfaction.

3. Acceptance: Embracing our bodies for what they can do, not just how they look.

4. Support: Building a community that encourages and uplifts each other.

The Power of Community

One of the most powerful aspects of the Sports Bra Squad is the sense of community it fosters. Over the years since the movement was born in 2016, through storytelling and group runs, women have come together to support each other. We learn from each other, inspire each other, and grow stronger together. This community is a safe space where women can share their experiences, celebrate their victories, and support each other through challenges.

Celebrating Our Strength

The Sports Bra Squad is about more than just running in a sports bra. It's about celebrating the strength we possess, both physically and mentally. It's about recognizing that our worth is not determined by our appearance but by our actions, our resilience, and our determination. And it’s about understanding that if we want to see a world free of fatphobia and diet culture, we have to do the work to spot it, call it out, and protect ourselves from it.

Taking Up Space

Taking up space is a powerful act of defiance against societal norms that tell us to shrink ourselves. By running in our sports bras, we are taking up space unapologetically. We are reclaiming our bodies and our right to exist as we are. This act of taking up space is a powerful statement of self-acceptance and empowerment. Whether you run in your sports bra, a pair of shorts you’re afraid to run in, or a tank top showing your arms, what matters most isn’t what you wear, but how you think and feel about yourself and your body. Redefining what strength looks like is an inside job.

Looking Forward

As we move forward, the Sports Bra Squad will continue to evolve and grow. We will keep learning, challenging societal norms, and supporting each other. Our mission is to empower women to appreciate their bodies for what they can do, to reject harmful societal norms, and to build a community of strength and resilience.

The Sports Bra Squad is more than just a movement; it's a revolution. It's about unlearning harmful societal norms, embracing our true strength, and supporting each other on our journeys. It's about ditching diet culture, rejecting fatphobia, and moving towards body image resilience. It's about taking up space, celebrating our bodies, and building a community of empowered women.

Join us in this journey. Together, we can redefine what it means to be strong. Together, we can build a world where every woman feels confident and powerful in her own skin. Together, we are the Sports Bra Squad.

Love,