Body Shame NoBody

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Prerna Mistry

As I sit down in front of a screen holding my refreshing cup of tea on a bright morning, I scroll through the daily news and after a while, move my cursor to the entertainment section and I am taken aback by what I see—a headline on supermodel Gigi Hadid being the latest victim of body shaming. What shook me was that today, even women on the level that of Gigi Hadid are also not safe from the vicious cycle of bullying.

Yes. Bullying. Call it what you may, but at the end of the day, criticising someone for who they are, what they do or how they look like is a form of bullying. What I cannot fathom yet is how people believe that they are somehow entitled to a privilege that of berating people and judging them when it is not their place to. Like the aforementioned Gigi Hadid piece for example, she was criticised for her fluctuating weight and was slammed for being too skinny; what is funny is that these are the very same people who had an issue with her being not skinny and even unfit for the modelling career.

While the model did write a tweet explaining her constant weight fluctuations, it got me thinking, does she really have to? Why is a person really explainable to people he/she doesn’t even know? She doesn’t need to. However, reading the tweet made me feel quite irked at this point because what I realised is that people sometimes can be quite insensitive to issues and to other people as well to make opinions on matters without having no concept of contexts.

On an episode on Keeping Up With The Kardashians, even Kim Kardashian had once expressed her anxiety of being randomly photographed by the paparazzi and the pressure of the pictures being perfect for if they’re not then the backlash from people body shaming and criticising stands. She even asserted that for people to think that it’s okay (body shame) is so frustrating. And I couldn’t agree more.

It is quite frustrating when people disregard other people’s feelings irrespective of who they are. What is sad is even celebrities today are victims of body shaming. Which is an alarming fact that when celebrities aren’t spared, what with all the sources they have to prevent the situation, what may become of a regular person?

Body shaming doesn’t always happen directly. There are many instances such as social media and adverts promoting only a certain body type as an ideal or a certain product stating that if only you are fair, you are lovely.

What is worse is that today, body shaming is seeping down to such a dangerous level where it is affecting the younger generation, comprising of teens as well, as there is an underlying pressure of perfection that everyone wants to achieve due to which people are made fun of for their weight, their looks and even colour.

It is often neglected though, that this habit of criticising really affects a person’s mental health as a person who is constantly bullied and jibed at, starts self criticising which leads to depression, low self esteem and also eating disorders in some cases.

We need to be aware that we as human beings need to be empathetic to each other. Let each other live as they are. Criticising someone for being their own person is crossing the line. Celebrate every body type because there is no such thing as a perfect body because things like perfection and beauty are very ambiguous. What may be your idea of perfection or beauty may not be the same for the next person.

People should be respected for who they are, as they are. Also, for someone who has been bullied and been a victim of peer pressure for not being perfect, you must learn to embrace all your flaws and love yourself because you are awesome the way you are and you do not need validation from some random person. Stop chasing the idea of perfection and chase happiness instead.

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