‘‘BODY SHAMING’’ the cruel trend

Not being able to love oneself could be the worse feeling one could ever have. People who are body shamed often find it hard to accept themselves and have the tendency to compare themselves to others. 

Body shaming is an act of discriminatory behavior based on one’s physical appearance. It can be both fat shaming and skinny shaming. Fat, flat, stick, man shoulders, etc are some of the derogatory comments that women face. While we are aware of this problem among girls and women we must acknowledge the fact that it is also common among boys and men. Boys and men are appreciated more when they are tall, broad shouldered and have a good physique. Others who do not come under this category are shamed and made fun of. 

Body shaming is so common now that it is hard to find someone who has never faced it. Sometimes people also find ways to criticize someone’s body aspects through sarcasm which does not do any less harm than direct criticism. Comments like “you would look better if you lose some weight” and “eat more, you look unhealthy” have been spoken by many tongues. 

There is another aspect of body shaming which is criticizing oneself for being a certain body type which is not among the average category. This can be the cause of being mocked by others or following the trends in social media or magazines where models or the so called influencers are seen flaunting their unbelievably perfect bodies which makes one feel inferior. 

All of this has a very bad impact on the victims who may face low self esteem all throughout their lives. They may focus more on their physical features instead of anything that could be more important than that. They sometimes torture themselves to achieve a certain kind of look. An obese woman may starve herself to slim herself down and sometimes she could go to an extreme level to get faster results. An underweight girl may overeat to gain some weight. A boy with small shoulders may be criticized so much that he would feel ashamed to participate in games and sports even if he might have desired to do so. 

We must understand that none of this is indicating that one should not take care of his/her physique but it is really sad to see that people are judged more by their physical appearances than their morals and actions. One should have the freedom to choose what one wants to be and should not be forced to hate the person he/she is. We must encourage a person if he wants to bring a healthy change in his life but we should not be the one to decide that.