“Generations of people are shaped by the “politically correct” ways to address topics such as disability. There is a latency between social acceptance and civil rights movements.
Generations of people become complacent in what was considered the status quo when they were coming- of- age.” (Martin-Hays, 2022)
Body Positivity Message
In comparison to the broader #bodypositivity trend of reframing physical traits and abilities the shift is gradual but also there’s the presence of toxic when “avoiding, suppressing, or rejecting negative emotions or experiences. This may take the form of denying your own emotions or someone else denying your emotions, insisting on positive thinking instead.”(Psychology Today) Focusing on what you should think and should feel about your body is counter productive because the surface concept is to radically accept.
It’s harder to accept yourself based on gender, sexuality, or disability. In Netflix’s Special the story is about Ryan a gay disabled person. He’s the special one that the show recognizes as intersectionality.
Comparing Intersections
But there are different circumstances for his friend Kim. She said, “Sometimes I feel like as a non-skinny, non-white girl I gotta work overtime. It’s like, ‘hey I’m a voluptuous brown girl, but I’m wearing a $448 dress and a blowout, so I’m safe—accept me!” (Dokoza, 2021, Housechilling Party)
This confession came when she discovered Ryan was lying about a party and said he’s a loser. For the sake of honesty. There is a deeper connection the both have toward intersectionality. Comparing stigmas and experiences is not useful.
The lack of perspective on how Kim lives is a gap of understanding others feelings and that self loathing and labels are not competing. People do need community to radically accept themselves and social media is effective for body positivity but the internet is more performative than the raw moments “for the sake of being honest in a friendship like Special.
Perspective & Dialogue
In a later episode Kim’s parents, while they are in a racial minority they do not recognize they are judgemental of her weight. The first interaction at her home was “Have you lost weight? I can finally get my hands around you.”
Kim is moving back home because of her debt. When she asked for a raise her boss said, “Fat chance, sorry curvy voluptuous chance.” At dinner with Kim’s family she confronts her mom.
Mom:“Seconds? I’m stuffed.
Kim: What mom you triggered? How about this, yum oh my gosh so good I feel my buttons getting tighter oh its so good. Oh God my eyelids are gaining so much weight I can barely keep them open. I love being fat… Let me get my fat ass up before I break this Goddamn chair!” (Dokoza, 2021, Joins the Crips,)
People who are fatter can face the concept that it’s their choice that leads to their weight. A physical disability is not often seen as a choice.
Mental health would be the exception to this. Mental health does have that visibility problem. But intersectionality has always had that connection.
“The body positivity movement originated from fat, Black, and queer activism in response to certain bodies being so rarely visible or held as valuable in discourses and visual media (e.g., fashion or physical cultures).” (Griffen et al. 2022 p. 2)
Similar to the body positivity movement, intersectionality has its roots in Black feminist thought, including the work of nineteenth-century anti-slavery and women’s rights activist Sojourner Truth and Maria Stewart (1), and late twentieth-century theorists like Angela Davis, Audre Lorde, and members of the Black lesbian Combahee River Collective.” (Griffen et al. 2022 p. 2)
Conclusion
“Representations of minorities often follow storylines of misery and focus on the hardships of being in these communities” (Martin-Hays, 2025) The representations do not show people who have radically accepted themselves. It opts for highlighting the reasons of self pity and can lead to a need for a savior. Intersectionality in research must recognize its rich history, and orient to interrogating the dynamics of power and oppression that are characterized by a reckoning with its founding purpose within Black feminist activism and scholarship (5). (Griffen et al. 2022 p. 2)
Generations are continuously molded by the prevailing “politically correct” standards of their time, leaving each era to redefine what acceptance looks like. Yet, as Special illustrates through Ryan and Kim intersectal identities can relate to social ideals of what you should look and be capable of—movements like body positivity aim to reframe beauty and ability, but when they suppress discomfort. Intersectionality reminds us that no identity exists in isolation; gender, disability, race, and body all interact in shaping lived experience.
References
Dokoza, A. (Director). (2019). Special [TV series]. Netflix.
Dokoza, A. (Director). (2019, April 12). Chapter Four: Housechilling Party [TV series episode]. In Special. Netflix.
Dokozza, A. (Director). (2021, May 20). Ryan Joins the Crips [TV series episode]. In Special. Netflix.
Fritsch, K., Heynen, R., Ross, A. N., & Van Der Meulen, E. (2016). Disability and sex work: developing affinities through decriminalization. Disability & Society, 31(1), 84-99. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09687599.2016.1139488
Griffen, M., Bailey, K. A., & Lopez, K. J. (2022). #BodyPositive? A critical exploration of the body positive movement within physical cultures taking an intersectionality approach. Frontiers: Sports and Active Living, 1-13. https://doi.org/10.338&/fspor.#0##.&08580
Martin-Hays, O. L. (2025, March 11). Masculinity and mental health in leading men. capableism.blog.https://capableism.blog/masculinity-and-mental-illness-in-leads/
Martin-Hays, O. L. (2022, December 22). Politically correctness triggers bigotry. capableism.blog. https://capableism.blog/politically-correctness-triggers-bigotry/
Toxic positivity. (n.d.). Psychology Today. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/toxic-positivity