Body Positive Transcript

Angus:    I think there's a very outdated body image standard for men. Me posting what I do and the content that I make actively challenges that standard. What you see online isn't what you see every day. There shouldn't. There shouldn't be this idealised body type that is this muscly man. A lot of what I do is fashion, and a lot of the fashion content creators that I was seeing weren't inclusive, and I thought it might be nice if I start making content around bigger people in fashion.

Producer: Would you be able to just introduce yourself?

Angus:    Um, hi, I'm Angus and I'm a body positive content creator. A lot of what I do is fashion. Um, and I was on TikTok, Instagram, um, and a lot of the fashion content creators that I was seeing weren't inclusive. And I sort of thought, hmm, it might be nice if I start making content around bigger people in fashion and plus size fashion. I just try and stay true to who I am as a person. Put that out on the internet and then try and hope that people who may feel like they're being shut down by traditional masculine views, that they can express themselves and they can have emotion and they can be vulnerable. As I was growing up, I was bullied for the way I looked. I've always been a heavy set guy.

Um, I've always been bigger. It's sort of shaped the way that I view my body now. Um, in the fact that I've sort of gone past that feeling of being bullied and feeling that I'm not accepted for the way I look to now, knowing that that's just completely not true. And just realising that when you are in the real world and not online or next sat next to your bully at school, that realistically, nobody does actually care what you look like. This is my favourite thing ever. This is a late 1960s German/French chore jacket, which sounds confusing. I try and be like really authentic and I don't try and hide anything about myself. Like I think a lot of people, if they had my body, might try and hide their body behind the clothes they wear. Um, and with the content they make, I feel like I make people feel comfortable in themselves. Um, or at least that's what I try and do. And I get a lot of lovely messages from people that have messaged me saying that my content has helped them feel more comfortable in themselves.

It's taken me quite a while to get to where I am. Um, I think even when I started off posting, there was part of me that wasn't confident. And it is difficult when you do get hate comments from people, it's difficult not to let them affect you. And there was a point where I was letting them affect my confidence. My body positivity message is mainly to men, is to make men feel comfortable in their bodies. Like not everyone has a six pack and abs and has massive biceps. Like that's just not real. Like not everyone looks like that. And it should be widely accepted that. People with bodies like mine are just the standard body for men. From an outside perspective. And what traditional masculinity is, it's someone who or a man that thinks that they can't show emotion, and they have to be this sort of permanently, mentally and physically stable rock. I think it's important to take a step back off social media and actually just get out in the real world, experience real people, talk to real people and just try and stay off social media as much as possible. I've certainly tried doing that in the last few months, and I think it just gives you a better perspective on who you are and who you can shape yourself into being.