Whether familiar with the term ‘body shaming’ or not, people in our society have practiced it for ages.
Making negative comments about other’s physical features or appearance. Calling someone fat or thin, making negative comments about anything including someone’s body shape, height, appearance is a very familiar scene in our society. All of these topics fall under body shaming.
Many people see body shaming as normal because they have practiced it for a long time. To many, this is just a joke. ‘If you eat rice from any warehouse and make this healthy’, ‘You are so thin that the storm will actually fly away’, ‘You are a palm tree’ are very common here.
Many of those who say such things do not understand the effect it can have on the mind of the person who said it ‘in the light’ or ‘jokingly’, and how embarrassing and humiliating it can be for him.
In this regard, Jahangirnagar University Student Welfare and Counseling Center Deputy Director (Psychology) Snehashis Kumar Chatterjee said, ‘The practice of body shaming has been going on in our society for ages. This is a fairly new term that many of the previous generations may not be familiar with. But there are many conscious people who do body shaming intentionally to hurt others. People who have low self-confidence or low self-esteem tend to body-sham others. There are some people who are not satisfied with their appearance or shape, they make negative comments about others’ appearance or shape to calm their mind. People who grow up with flawed social values don’t see body shaming as evil.’
Body shaming may be just a simple comment, but its impact can be devastating at times. This lowers people’s self-confidence, with many falling victim to body shaming and withdrawing from everyone in despair.
Psychologist Snehashis Kumar Chatterjee says, ‘Every person in the world is different. So it is natural that everyone will react differently to the same words. For example, if you fat-sham someone, they may take it quite naturally. But the same words can deeply hurt another person or cause them to excessively prioritize eating and drinking. So just as body shaming does not become positive if someone takes it for granted. Someone being hurt by these words is not an overreaction.’
He also said, ‘It is important to remember one thing. A person who does body shaming makes unwanted comments about everyone. Whether you are thin or heavy, whether you are tall or short or whether your eyes are elongated or round; Some people you can never please. You may think they are making negative comments about you because you are not perfect. But everyone around them is flawed.’
Answering what to do if you are a victim of body shaming, psychologist Snehashis Kumar Chatterjee says, ‘As the saying goes, avoidance is a blessing. The less you think about others’ bad comments, the happier you will be. Before giving importance to what others say, see how you like to see yourself. It is not right to judge yourself by taking other people’s comments seriously. It is important to love yourself first. Those who do not love themselves, try to keep themselves good by making unwanted comments about others’ physical features.’
‘Social awareness and counseling is very much needed to reduce body shaming. There should be a chapter on this subject in the textbooks. So that people can be aware of it from childhood,” he added.
