Body Shaming

We live in a world where most of the people are expose to television and the entertainment industry. We are constantly following celebrities on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook.  The fitness routine of these celebrities is often an inspiration to the youth. We aspire to have such a body type . After all it is the health which is the real wealth. What is sad here is that the society has decided that having only a particular body-type is appropriate. Anything more or less then that results in being subjected to body shaming.

So what is Body Shaming ? The definition is ‘body shaming is the practice of making critical, potentially humiliating comments about a person’s body size or weight.’  I wouldn’t have said it better. It’s difficult to escape from these comment, either they are directed towards you or someone around you.

There are many ways in which a person is constantly subjected to body shaming.

Have you observed that in many shows for kids or otherwise, it is always the fat person who is shown in the negative light. The person is either evil and  the trouble-maker or the person is a complete loser. What is irritating about these shows is that they show that eating is the sole purpose of these characters. It’s simply ridicules.   Then comes the skinny people. They are often bullied by their peers and they never stand up for themselves. It’s always the Mr. perfect who comes to the rescue and saves the skinny person from further humiliation. Children watching these shows become self conscious and categorize themselves into the fat person, the skinny person and the Mr. perfect. And the game is on. Kids become victims to name calling and being bullied. Obviously , this is not a healthy environment for a child and can have far reaching consequences.

Teenagers or young adults are not spared from body shaming or name calling. In fact at this stage it gets worse. Now a days most teenagers demand a mobile phone. According to a study of Ericsson around 30 million urban teens own a mobile phone in India. People spend most of their time on social media. There is an influx of all sort of content on these platforms. The most trending thing on these platforms is uploading pictures. Out there most people get caught up in this whole thing of getting maximum likes and comments. The people having a different body from what the society considers normal are afraid to post pictures. Frighten from having to face humiliation. People commenting things like ‘moti dekh rahi hai’ , ‘ weight lose kar de’ , ‘ kuch kha le’ might think it’s funny but the impact on the recipient can be damaging. Teenage is a phase where people become more conscious of themselves. Everyone is working to achieve a perfect appearance.

Body shaming often leads to low self-esteem.  When people constantly criticize one’s appearance or make fun of it soon the person being body shamed feels horrible about themselves. There is constant fear of being made fun of. More than that there is this feeling of being not worthy or unwanted. This obviously leads to inferiority complex. The constant nagging and pressure to have the  perfect body type can result in eating disorders. People adopt insane diet routine which further deteriorates their health. 

The third place where people are subjected to body shaming in our own home. This is such an irony, we find our house as the safest place. A place where we go to seek comfort. Most of the times it’s the mothers that pressurize their daughters( I have  personally never seen a mother body shame the son. ) to become thinner or healthier. I can see a mother’s concerns in this regard. Of course a mother can never think ill for the child. However, a mother should understand that their child does not need all this coming from their family too. Its more heartbreaking when a family member fails to understand them. If any parent is reading this now please remember that your child already deals with a lot and please don’t add more to it. Motivate them to be confident and happy without worrying if they are in ‘shape’ or not.

Till now I have talked about where we are subjected to body shaming but now lets talk about why people body shame.

Most of us are insecure about various aspects in our life. Be it the colour of the skin, height , weight, intelligence, financial position. It  is difficult for us to accept our  flaws and it is  often disheartening and frustrating to be aware of these imperfections in  life. When we see someone who is more successful, more beautiful there is natural tendency to be jealous. It gives arise to the insecurity within us. To hide this we try to find faults with other people. The feeling of ‘ at least I am better than her/him’ helps us escape our insecurities and makes us feel good about ourselves….who wouldn’t want that. Many derive happiness from name calling and body shaming others.  Some people also think it is cool to make fun of others and therefore indulge in body shaming.

I don’t have a solution regarding how to stop people from body shaming but I  know that only the person who stands up for themselves can stop these people. Whenever  you are teased about being fat or being skinny or being weak, having a darker complexions etc instead of feeling dejected stand up for yourself and give savage come backs.  I know it’s difficult sometimes but we got to do it. This will make the other person realize that they cannot bully you and refrain from it in the future. Be comfortable in our own skin. Don’t let others demotivate you.   To those who indulge in body shaming and enjoy it let me tell you one thing, the happiness derived by shaming others doesn’t last long and something better to do. There is already enough hate and agony in the world try and spread love. instead .