Tag: body shaming

Body shaming is nothing less than a crime.

‘Look at her she is so fat.’ ‘look at him , is so dark and skinny.’ ‘ just look at that girl she is so short .’

source:https://www.womenfitness.net

Ever heard these? I hear them daily and it’s either about my self or a group of people or a person talking , to be more clear gossiping about some one else.

So the society expects one to be perfect ,like fair color, good height and slim and fit ,but are every one built in the same way? of course no , just like all the five fingers of our hand are different ,every human being is different and beautiful in their own ways.

If a girl is dark the whole society gives advices ,how to become fair ,if she or he is fat they are given advices about how to reduce weight , if skinny then how to increase their weight, if short ,how to become tall , I just keep wondering if the society has problem with every one’s appearance ?

From my personal experience , I can tell you that I faced such things , I was bullied in my school by my classmates , my friends and even my relatives bullied for my appearance , I could not tolerate them and even I cried due to that , and used to be envious of others for their personalities. I too wanted to achieve what they had and for that I used to skip meals some times and due to that I would feel more hungry than ever and used to over eat. As the time passed I started to accept my body and for my health and fitness , I took healthy steps in my life and started exercising and developing good healthy food habits.

source:https://storyfile.s3.amazonaws.com

I understood that everyone is beautiful in their own ways and its something that everyone has to accept , I understood that this bullying and body shaming is not good , not for your mental neither for your physical health, body shaming can lead to mental health issues , people start to overthink and worry about their appearance and in order to look perfect and beautiful they will choose faster and dangerous ways , like trying to reduce fat in just a week or trying to increase height and all this is really dangerous for one’s health and can lead to other dangerous consequences.

People of every gender and of all ages must deal with body shaming , it not a big issues , but this can damage one’s mental health the one at whom we are laughing at , whom we are body shaming, or mocking, this may also lead to emotional damage and trauma and depression.

So who are the culprits behind this , one is the society and the other is we ourselves , the product advertisers are the main ones for creating a pain point and then offering a solution to it, making ourselves think that we are not worthy and if we are not of certain skin tone ,height or weight and all , secondly we have ourselves to blame because we do not believe in ourselves and our bodies and we do not treat them well , we do not accept ourselves for how we are and then all this leads to a solution to overcome our issues and that too in a quick and unhealthy way ,leading to more disasters .

I just want the society to accept everyone as they are and to appreciate everyone’s personality since its unique for everyone and to stop body shaming or bullying . Society can be more beautiful if we accept people how they are and try not to change their appearance and instead help build confidence with in them about how unique they are and how to accept and love your body . Not only the society but firstly you yourself have to accept your body and treat it in a proper way and you have to love yourself the way you are , because self love comes first and you have to your first priority.

Body shaming is nothing less than a crime.

‘Look at her she is so fat.’ ‘look at him , is so dark and skinny.’ ‘ just look at that girl she is so short .’

source:https://www.womenfitness.net

Ever heard these? I hear them daily and it’s either about my self or a group of people or a person talking , to be more clear gossiping about some one else.

So the society expects one to be perfect ,like fair color, good height and slim and fit ,but are every one built in the same way? of course no , just like all the five fingers of our hand are different ,every human being is different and beautiful in their own ways.

If a girl is dark the whole society gives advices ,how to become fair ,if she or he is fat they are given advices about how to reduce weight , if skinny then how to increase their weight, if short ,how to become tall , I just keep wondering if the society has problem with every one’s appearance ?

From my personal experience , I can tell you that I faced such things , I was bullied in my school by my classmates , my friends and even my relatives bullied for my appearance , I could not tolerate them and even I cried due to that , and used to be envious of others for their personalities. I too wanted to achieve what they had and for that I used to skip meals some times and due to that I would feel more hungry than ever and used to over eat. As the time passed I started to accept my body and for my health and fitness , I took healthy steps in my life and started exercising and developing good healthy food habits.

source:https://storyfile.s3.amazonaws.com

I understood that everyone is beautiful in their own ways and its something that everyone has to accept , I understood that this bullying and body shaming is not good , not for your mental neither for your physical health, body shaming can lead to mental health issues , people start to overthink and worry about their appearance and in order to look perfect and beautiful they will choose faster and dangerous ways , like trying to reduce fat in just a week or trying to increase height and all this is really dangerous for one’s health and can lead to other dangerous consequences.

People of every gender and of all ages must deal with body shaming , it not a big issues , but this can damage one’s mental health the one at whom we are laughing at , whom we are body shaming, or mocking, this may also lead to emotional damage and trauma and depression.

So who are the culprits behind this , one is the society and the other is we ourselves , the product advertisers are the main ones for creating a pain point and then offering a solution to it, making ourselves think that we are not worthy and if we are not of certain skin tone ,height or weight and all , secondly we have ourselves to blame because we do not believe in ourselves and our bodies and we do not treat them well , we do not accept ourselves for how we are and then all this leads to a solution to overcome our issues and that too in a quick and unhealthy way ,leading to more disasters .

I just want the society to accept everyone as they are and to appreciate everyone’s personality since its unique for everyone and to stop body shaming or bullying . Society can be more beautiful if we accept people how they are and try not to change their appearance and instead help build confidence with in them about how unique they are and how to accept and love your body . Not only the society but firstly you yourself have to accept your body and treat it in a proper way and you have to love yourself the way you are , because self love comes first and you have to your first priority.

How Body Shaming affects one’s well being

We all know and accept the fact that different humans will have different characterstics, likes and dislikes but what about the physical appearance. Why is it that a standard is set for people which everyone accept them to follow . The ones who fail to meet the standard criteria are then “shamed” on the pretext of motivation.

Crticising someone for their body fat, “thin” built, hair texture and colour, hair density or bald looks, too much height or “such a shorty”, different body shapes, size of various body parts like small or heavy breasts or hips, skin tone etc comes under the broad term of BODY SHAMING. Not only just the looks but people are shamed with the accessories they decide to decorate their body with like tattoos, piercings etc and also with the marks that the diseases or some accidents leave. The memories of diseases and the accidents are traumatic enough, in addition to this one has to bear the addition burden of someone not liking some marks on their bodies which they have learnt to make peace with hereby scratching the old wounds making the person relive the trauma.

A person is defined by its physical and mental health. While the latter includes moral virtues , the former stands for a healthy body where all oragans function properly. Different skin colors , height, length of hair until and unless you have got an illness is all okay and acceptable. Anything which doesn’t threaten the working of your organs is completely normal. Sadly, this is not the case today.

This blog will tell you what leads people to body shame others and affect it has on the victim.

What causes people to BODY SHAME

  • It is like a chain reaction which goes on in the society. There are some standards set by the people themselves which they expect everyone to follow to be “an epitome of PERFECTION”. For example – If you are a male , you ought to have good height, good muscles, lusty dense hairs and if you are a female, then the list extends to a great measure. A “good Indian girl” ought to have “fair ” skin , should not be covered in the layers of “fat”, should have markless, flawless skin, medium height , good natural color hair, tattoos makes one characterless and piercings except the traditional ear and nose also contribute to the former category. Now I ask, which text or rule book has defined these charactersticcs of a man or woman. The most funniest thing is the third gender is not even mentioned and talked baout anywhere instead they are shamed. Because some “boys” prefer wearing make up with female clothing and some girls keep short hairs and speak for themselves. The onlything which are ancient texts teaches us is to be honest , hardworking and possess good moral virtues there was never a mention about the physical appearnce. History is evident of the fact that people who were beyond this tandard criteria , proved better than the ones who followed it . The best example being Physics genius STEPHENS HAWKING. It is a sort of revenge game which continues.Because the people were teased and criticsed about their looks by the others they continue to do it with the rest to take out their frustration. The origin of this “toxic game” being unknown.
  • A default reaction to something which someone says or does and we dont like is to comment on their physical attributes making that person feel guilty about themselves . Like if someone acts in the manner which we dont like, people are often heard saying, “Obviously, she/he will do that. Didn’t you see how ugly they are”. This process of making a person guilty by remarking about their physical attributes is very common in today’s world specially in this age of social media.

Affects of BODY SHAMING

  • Reduction of self esteem, self confidence because you think you are not worthy or capable because someone told you that you are “unfit”. Everyone is unique with a different story behind each of their “not normal looks”, until and unless the third person knows about it they should not comment about it. This is very common to feel because confidence is the belief we have on ourselves which motivate and enable us to do the things properly and our confidence specially in the teen years is based on what the people around us friends, peers or family feels about us. In these growing years, one needs motivation and support in the form of words not the harsh words making people to change their appearance and hate themselves. This often leads to anxiety, stress, eating disorders bringing the ACTUAL DISEASES, depression sometimes leading people to self harm themselves. And then people says today’s youth is so reckless and “Teenagers attempt suicide because they were CORRECTED ABOUT SOMETHING or Scolded for their won well being”. Correcting someone’s natural built is equal to meddling with the nature and we have enough evidences of the consequences of meddling with the nature. This all is the result of the trauma which sometimes lead people into the actual bad habbits like alchol, drugs fastening the process towards their mortality.
  • In order to fit into the “standard criteria” , people undergo diets, proteins for increasing weights and heights, laser treatments for those who have thin hair or bald look, dozens of products containing many harmful chemicals to whiten their skin tone. This not only takes a toll on financial health , but also on the mental physical health. The treatments are not always effective , it causes more harm than good at times. The stress and anxiety in the anticipation of the result is a very acute thing which is actually to be worried about.

We need to stop criticising people on the pretext of looking after them If you really want to look after your “loved ones” , then it should be to take care of their health in all aspects not to bring them on the verge of madness.

Body Shaming- Too Fat Too Skinny

Body shaming is not just limited to making fun of someone just because they are fat or thin. It has wide scope for shaming someone for their height, body shape, any physical mark, physical features, muscularity or femininity, or any other external elements on the body such as tattoos.

What is Body Shaming?

Body shaming is the mocking of people based on their physical appearance. Fat-shaming might be the most common shaming that you must be knowing, but that’s not the end. Today, people are even mocked for their masculinity or femininity (even lack of it). Some physical features are stereotypically gender-associated. Some features like- broad shoulders, hairy body, facial hair, muscular body, and short hairs are associated with men, while features like- broad hips, prominent breast, long hairs, and smooth hair-free skin are associated with women. 

Sometimes these features, if visible in the opposite gender becomes the reason for bullying. A man having a prominent breast or a woman with small breasts are often bullied for their appearance and are put up with questions on masculinity and femininity. A woman with facial hair and a man without a beard (both of them are normal and naturally possible) are also mocked as they are expected to have the opposite. 

Movies and TV shows have contributed to a great extent in developing such a mindset of mocking someone or judging oneself by comparing self with others based on physical appearance. You must have seen, a ‘fat’ or a ‘bald’ character is always a subject of a joke and is bullied and called names. These visuals leave a psychological impact on the viewers and make it seem normal to bully someone for their appearance. 

Body shaming can take various forms;

  • Judging and commenting on someone’s physical appearance on their face.
  • Self-judging and comparison of one’s physical appearance with others.
  • Mocking on someone’s appearance without their knowledge.

Body shaming has increased with the increase in the use of social media. People tend to put up themselves much different way than they are in real life. People get flattered with other people’s posts and want to have such lives or look the way the other person looks in the posts. Also, the photo filters or filter apps available make them want to look “perfect”, without any flaws. These filters can make you look thinner if you are fat or vice-versa, make your skin look smooth and flawless, make you look tall if you are short, or the other way.

Bullying people traumatizes them and leaves them in self-doubt and immensely low self-esteem. Having acne or marks is all-natural, but the fear of your appearance not getting accepted by people makes it difficult to accept oneself the way you are. Every individual has their natural height, hair type, body shape, skin type, and skin colour. Sometimes few of the physical aspects evolve because of underlying disease or health issues. You never know what someone might be going through. 

Your physical appearance doesn’t define you. What makes you stand out is how your behavior and actions. Beauty is very distinctive for everyone. What might not be appealing to you might be liked by someone else. That’s why it’s said, “beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder”. There is no standard appearance to be socially accepted. It’s just made up of people around which has no significance. So, neither bully someone for their appearance nor stay quiet if you see anyone bully someone or you. If you see someone body shaming someone, take a stand. Stay positive and love yourself and everyone the way they are.