Body Shaming - And how it affects people

 

Too fat, too thin, too tall, too short – these are common phrases that people hear when their body doesn’t meet the society-deemed “beauty standards”, which in my opinion are unrealistic.

For the unversed, women should be in the perfect height frame of 5’5 – 5’8, with the perfect measurements of 36-24-36 and men should be at least 5’10 with a muscular build, well-built abs and not a single trace of fat. Anything below or above this is considered “second grade” and not beautiful.

 

Most of us are potential victims of body shaming.  At least once in our lives, we have been on the receiving end of such comments.  

 

As a result of these comments, we spend hours scrutinising our bodies in front of the mirror, comparing ourselves with others and thinking of ways to fit into this social stereotype, which is simply not fair to our bodies.

Belonging to the twenty-first century, we have freedom of speech and it is our right to speak our mind and voice our opinions – both positive and negative. But what we fail to understand is how our harsh words affect people.  A survey in adolescents from grades 9 to 12 shows that more than 59% of girls and 29% of boys were trying to ‘lose weight’.  18% of girls and 15% of boys had gone without food for around 24 hours in the last 30 days – just to lose weight. Most cases of people with eating disorders fall in the age group of 12-25 years. And body shaming is not reserved for just overweight people. Skinny shaming also exists.

 

I am not against losing or gaining weight or maintaining a healthy weight. I wholeheartedly support healthy living. What I strongly oppose is starvation, over exertion and going extreme lengths just to get a body that fits into the social stereotype.

Such criticising comments on people’s weight crawl into the depths of their mind and fester doubts in those deepest, darkest corners, affecting their self-worth and self-esteem.  This leads to people developing eating disorders like bulimia, anorexia and BDD (Body Dysmorphic Disorder). And as usual, when people hear of such cases, they AGAIN label those people as mentally unstable and unable to take “simple comments”. And they always, always conveniently forget that it was the harsh criticism that drew them to take such steps.

 

Let us all take a step back and make people realise that what’s on the outside is just superficial. It’s what’s on the inside that matters. The value on the weighing scale does not define your value as a person. YOU are what makes you special, not your face, not your height and most definitely not your weight. Recently, “Age is just a number” was considered a trend. Forget about being a trend, why can’t “Weight is just a number” be at least accepted in society? Besides, we never know the reason behind people being overweight or underweight. They might be suffering from diabetes, thyroid, insomnia, stress, anaemia or might have just come back from a long stay in the hospital. The point is – why should a person’s weight cast a shadow over how he or she is as a person?

 TO ALL THE INSECURE PEOPLE:  Don’t you ever worry about your weight. XS, S, M, L, XL – the size of your jeans doesn’t define you as a person. The only size that matters is the size of your heart, how big and accepting it is.

TO ALL THE BODY SHAMERS: Before you find your next victim to criticize, I suggest you stand in front of the mirror and criticise yourself like how you would do to others and make a note of how you would feel if someone said the same things to you.  I don’t have anything else to say.

 

“Too fat, too skinny, too short, too tall, too anything; there’s a sense that we are all too something and we are all not enough. This is life. Our bodies change. Our minds change. Our hearts change.”

                                                                                                                               ~ Emma Stone

Signing off,

Akshata😉

PS:  FYI    

Bulimia nervosa : A condition where people secretly binge on large amounts of food and then purge, getting rid of the calories in an unhealthy way. 

Anorexia nervosa: A disorder marked by reduced appetite and aversion to food. Simply put, it is when simple dieting grows into out-of-control dieting, equal to starvation.

Body dysmorphic disorder: Mental illness involving focus on a perceived flaw in our appearance . Basically you start imagining a flaw in your appearance.