What Is Body Shaming?
Body shaming involves mocking or making negative and degrading comments or remarks about another person’s size or weight.
A person may be body-shamed either because they are large – or overweight – or because they are considered too skinny.
Either way, body shaming is extremely common nowadays, and ever on the increase.
It is especially a huge problem among young people, and it can have a great deal of various negative impacts on teenagers.
What Effect Can Body-Shaming Have On A Person?
As a result of ridicule and body shaming, some overweight people may be motivated to pursue the gym, a healthy lifestyle, or engage in more physical activity after being body shamed.
However, body shaming may go much farther than just giving someone else a reason to lose weight.
On the contrary, it can make an overweight person completely obsessed over their weight, and they will begin to eat very little or even starve themselves in fear of the ridicule that they are getting.
On the other hand, other people may do the complete opposite, as the stress and anxiety that they are experiencing may make them eat even more to combat that stress.
They may eat more junk and sweet foods, and in turn, gain even more weight than before.
Whether it is overweight or a skinny individual that is being body-shamed, it most often will result in a person having low self-esteem and decreased confidence.
Body shaming can make people feel worthless ugly and could lead the person to develop a poor view of themselves, even experiencing a hatred toward themselves and their appearance.
As well as constant body shaming can have a very negative impact on another person’s mental health.
Being body shamed can make a person feel sad and humiliated and can even lead to depression. For those already suffering from depression, body shaming can worsen it or make the symptoms seem out of control.
Another dangerous aspect of body shaming is the fact that often people body-shame those who are at an unhealthy weight by calling them fat or obese just as a form of bullying or for clout.
However, the victim of the bullying can be moved to believe that he or she is too fat and be impelled to lose weight.
On occasion, a person who was already slim before but had experienced body shaming may even begin to eat so little that they become underweight.
Sometimes body shaming can have such a negative impact on another person that the individual concerned may develop an eating disorder, such as anorexia or bulimia, to become thinner.
In the worst-case scenario, repeated and ongoing body shaming, especially that which goes on in school, can make a person feel suicidal, and sadly often even leads to suicide if not dealt with soon enough.
This is an ever-increasing problem in the world today, and yet people continue to body shame others without realizing or caring about the negative effect it can have on the mind of another individual.
How Do You Avoid Becoming A Victim To Body-Shaming?
First of all, it is always important to develop a positive view of yourself to prevent negative remarks and comments from getting to you.
Often, this is not easy for some people, especially those who have been victims of bullying and body shaming for many months or even years.
Instead of focusing on what you can’t change about yourself, focus on becoming the best version of yourself.
Trying doing things that make you feel good, and pursue a healthy lifestyle which can help you become more fit and productive.
In addition, if you are being body-shamed and are finding it hard to cope with, you may want to talk to someone about it.
It may be a friend, classmate, or family member, but if you find yourself truly alone then there are plenty of organizations that help young people who are dealing with body shaming and poor body image.
Expressing how you feel can help you get the weight and burden of negative remarks off your shoulders, which can make you feel better after all. As well as that, another person may offer comfort or invaluable advice which can help you along the way.
Sometimes you may even find another person who is experiencing or has experienced, the same problem as you, and discussing it together may help you deal with body shaming and prevent it from getting to you.
