Body shaming: An overview

 The origins of body shaming can be found in the

extremely fundamental concepts of History: prejudice
and discrimination. Another contributing factor in body
shaming is bullying. Many people assume, that the
involvement of an external person or consciousness is
essential for body shaming to take place. However, this
is not the case. Body shaming is an umbrella term that
includes self-degradation and by extension, some
aspects of depression. The most prominent forms of
body shaming centre around two main concepts:
1)Obesity or Fatness.
2)The belief in traditional gender specific roles.
Among victims of Body Shaming, young teen girls
form the single largest group. After extensive research,
scientists have come to the conclusion that body
shaming takes two main forms:
1)Self -degradation and judging oneself. As discussed
above this is one key component of body shaming that’s
often disregarded.
2)Shaming other people (even if it’s without their
knowledge).
Irrespective of the type, the characteristics of body
shaming as a whole are the same and include feelings of
shame and inferiority (as a result of comparing oneself
to others). Now that we have understood body shaming
as a whole, the questions we must ask ourselves are:
 1)How do we overcome it?
2)How is it evolving in the modern world?
The answer to the first question is actually quite simple
and it’s not what you think! The main key is
Acceptance. Learn to accept your body as it is because
your body has been given to you by God and as far as I
can comprehend ,God can do no wrong. We must learn
to accept one extremely evident yet unnoticed
concept:no one is or will ever be perfect but we all will
always be cool and awesome in our own little ways.
Once we accept the principles stated above, it’s only a
matter of time before body shaming becomes a thing of
the past. As for the second question, it’s really good to
note that awareness about body shaming and means to
counter it have touched new high levels that have never
been seen before. The situation is better than it’s ever
been in history. However we must keep in mind, it
hasn’t been fully eliminated yet; and like a pandemic,
it’s still eating into our world. It is therefore imperative
to double down on our efforts to fight it. Additionally,
the progress made deserves some much-needed
attention and commendation. It is on this positive note
of basking in our past successes and looking forward to
eradicate body shaming forever through continued
efforts in the future- that I end.

THANK YOU FOR READING!

BY Kunsh Kaul