What is body shaming?

One of the biggest problems for today’s generation is body shaming. It involves humiliating someone by making a negative/ inappropriate comment about how someone looks. The act of the body  can be  carried out by a person remotely on the internet, social media and can even be done by your parents, siblings, friends, etc.

Having a negative body image is one of the main reasons for developing  disorders. According to helpguide, it states that, “Having a negative body image is one of the main factors for developing disordered eating or an eating disorder, such as bulimia, or binge eating.”

One of the main disorders many people get is anorexia. Anorexia is a condition when people either don’t eat at all or barely eat. Not only is this unhealthy to the person starving themselves, it can also cause damage to them. People with this disorder worry a lot about how they weigh or how they look.  This mostly happens with teens. Some teens like to compare themselves with people on social media on what they think they should look like with the ” perfect silhouette” or with the “perfect face.” They also like to think that they need to look a certain way to get noticed.

Your first step in handling body shaming is body positivity. No one should feel ashamed by the way they look. You only have one body which you should love and accept. If you want to improve your appearance, don’t do it because of what other people think or say. Do it for yourself, not for others. Instead of talking down on yourself, learn to turn your bad thoughts into body positivity. Be grateful for good health and the body that keeps you alive every day. Wish to have good health always and not a flawless body.

Something you can do to the person who is body shaming someone is to call out the person in a nice manner.  According to the Kentucky Counseling Center, “…We all need to stop body-shaming because this can cause trauma and low self-esteem in those we unknowingly body-shame.”  This means that if you see a person getting body shamed you should try to help or speak up for them.