The three words everyone should place in their vocabulary. Banish. Body. Shaming. Body shaming is one of the things I wish could be banished FOE-EVA! Some may disagree, but body shaming comes in many forms and affects both men and women whether their body is plus size, petite, or somewhere in between. In this post I’m going to focus on the way women are body shamed since I feel that society has and continues to place a great amount of pressure on how women’s bodies should look, and with me being a woman I can speak to my own experiences of being body shamed.
What We’ll Discuss
- What is Body Shaming
- Body Shaming Doesn’t Discriminate
- Why No One Should Have to Endure Body Shaming
- My First Experience Being Body Shamed
- Bottom Line
What is Body Shaming
Body shaming is the action or practice of humiliating someone by making critical comments or mocking their body shape or size. Imagine hearing comments being made by other people about your body or even worse someone critiquing how they think your body should look and impose unsolicited advise as to what you need to do and/or eat to alter it to appease their views and opinions.
Unfortunately, everyone has or will experience some form of bullying in their lifetime. Being a woman is phenomenal but it doesn’t come without its fair share of problems especially when it comes to bodily appearance. From the beginning of time women were held at a higher standard in terms of their appearance, how they should dress, how they should look, how they should talk, and how they should carry themselves. Let us not forget that women are taught that we need to compete with one another. Women are brainwashed to become jealous and envious of each other and bodily societal pressures does not help. Body shaming does not discriminate.
People are body shamed for the following reasons:
- Thin
- Heavy
- Tall
- Short
- Top heavy
- Bottom heavy
- Small chested
- Flat chested
- Light-skinned
- Dark-skinned
- Brown-skinned
The list goes on.
Body Shaming Doesn’t Discriminate
Some would argue that body shaming only happens to people who are heavier, but let me tell you that is completely false. Even though some may think since society may favor petite women that when someone makes a comment about their body that it should be viewed as a compliment instead of shaming. LET. ME. BE. CLEAR. I don’t know of ANYONE who wants to constantly be hassled about their body. NO ONE! Just because you’re petite does not mean it’s a compliment for someone to constantly be asked why are you so skinny, don’t you eat, you need to eat some meat, gain some weight, or they become obsessed and start monitoring what you eat, when you eat, and how much you eat especially if you’re out at a function and just want to enjoy yourself. The thing that gets me is the people that are making these comments are not even professional nutritionist. So, body shamers be doing a whole job that no one requested for free…wow!
It amazes me how nothing seems to be good enough for society. Society tells us don’t be too thin, don’t be to heavy, don’t be too short, don’t be too tall, so on and so forth. Isn’t it ironic that most of the things society tells us not to be ends up being in style? For example, there was a time period were being heavy was seen as unattractive. Fast forward to 2020 some would say thick is in. My point is why should we wait for society to tell us if and when something is appealing when it was appealing all along?
Why No One Should have to Endure Body Shaming
First off we are all human beings with feelings and emotions. We are created by God differently for a reason. Each and every one of us was put on this earth for a specific purpose and God uniquely made us so we could follow through with his plan and purpose for our life. We are already equipped with the tools we each need to be able to do what our individual calling is calling us to do whether that’s appearance, personality, talents, etc. Body shaming is essentially bullying and no one asks to be bullied. No one should feel less than or made to feel uncomfortable to the point where they go to extreme lengths to alter their body because their body doesn’t live up to the standards of someone else or they no longer want to deal with the harassing comments. No one deserves to be under constant scrutiny because of the way their body looks.
My First Experience Being Body Shamed
This is a moment of vulnerability for me since I tend to bottle things up inside. It all started when I was in second grade. Yes, you read right. SECOND GRADE. A point in someone’s age where no one is considered to have a “body”. It’s a shame to have had to experience body shaming so young. Anyway, in elementary school there was an option as to whether to bring home lunch or school lunch. I chose home lunch and I would pack a sandwich and chips the night before. Well, lunchtime would arrive and I would stand on the stage waiting for my “friends” to come out of line so that I could sit with them. We’d sit down they’d open my lunch box and go through it to see what had been packed. Their comments were that a sandwich with chips was not enough and that I needed to eat more. Mind you some of these girls were skinnier than I was. They’d also look at my knuckles and say that my knuckles needed more meat on them, when in fact my knuckles looked no different than theirs. At first I didn’t understand, but later (much later) realized they were jealous. I thought they were just genuinely concerned. Keep in mind that I was a girl who was a military brat whose family was coming from overseas to stateside and this jealous behavior was unfamiliar to me.
Bottom Line
No matter what size you are no one deserves or asks to be harassed or body shamed. We all need to come together and stop putting pressure on other people to look a certain way. There are many of my own stories that I plan to share and I’ll also get into strategies on how to kick those comments and the people saying them to the curb so stay tuned. Until then, repeat after me, “My body is Not Your Business”. That’s how we will respond when they try to hit us with the body shaming.
