BODY SHAMING

~ARSHIA TANDON
“ Oh , hey! Long time , no see. It seems like you have put on a
lot of weight”. “Hey, fat so!” “Hey, tiny mouse”! “Too
skinny, my girl !” Well, these are certain phrases or
comments that we come across in our everyday life .Here or
there someone or the other is always commenting about
one’s physical appearance and contributing to body shaming.
Now, many of you might wonder what exactly body shaming
is? So to make it more clear to all, it’s the act of criticizing
either your own self or others based on their physical looks.
Body Shaming has become a social norm in today’s society
and it has become quite normal to be ashamed of how we
look or to think about how others will react to my body. As
appearance matters more in our visual and virtual culture
body shaming, has now become a type of daily routine. The
list of where we fail and what we feel ashamed of is almost
endless. Often we see sitcom’s using overweight actors as the
running joke of the show, resulting in fat shaming. To add
more to this, magazines read by a wide no of people
constantly offers tips about either how to lose weight or how
to gain weight or maybe how to hide our imperfections. Not
only this you and me also have been somewhere in our life
body shamed sometimes by our friends and family or maybe
by our relatives or others for either being too skinny or being
too chubby. Reaction of body shaming on one’s health is no
less than the effect of cancer on someone’s body. Body
shaming can also take someone’s life just as cancer does.
Each day a school girl detests her body for it isn’t how others
would like it. Many of us starve for days to lose weight or eat
certain kinds of pills to either get toned or to gain height.
After all it’s more important for others to feel more
comfortable with our body than we, with our own body. We
need to recognize and name this kind of behaviour. One
possible explanation of why we still don’t stand against it is
that we have not yet named body shaming for the wrongful
and discriminatory practice. Body shaming affects one’s
mental health in adverse ways and forces he \ she to take
steps against their will. We can’t judge someone based on
their looks and now it’s important for us to realize that it is
never OK to body shame or to get body shamed, no matter
what the intension is.
STAND AGAINST BODY SHAMING. STAND FOR YOURSELF.
STAND FOR OTHERS.