APPROVED DISAPPROVAL

When my mum came home from work today, she was feeling very low. Upon asking her the reason, she said that her school was organising a competition ‘The biggest loser wins’ for overweight children. Children from all classes were registering themselves irrespective of them being overweight or not. The class teachers were given the responsibility of encouraging overweight kids to register. One of her students who was a little ‘healthy’ was standing near the

registration counter but was not joining the queue to get himself registered. When she went to him and asked why he was being so hesitant to register, the 13-year-old kid burst into tears. Amidst tears, he told her that children his age mocked and commented on his body and weight. This compelled me to think that at times people can be very cruel and just for a few minutes of fun they

destroy someone’s self-confidence and shatter their self-belief. Body Shaming, which is though a relatively new and modern term, has been prevalent across the world since ages.

We come across articles daily in newspapers or magazines offering tips on- ‘lose weight in days’, ‘appear slimmer instantly’, or ‘hide our imperfections’. Sitcoms like The Kapil Sharma Show use overweight character’s bodies as the basis of many jokes which at times are very offensive. The society on the other hand has created a definite notion of beauty for both men and women- standard of skin colour, body dimensions, hair length, kind of clothes someone should wear or

should not wear. If you don’t have a picture-perfect body, you are judged, mocked, bullied and looked down at.

Body shaming is an act which is practised widely knowingly or unknowingly daily. It is criticising your own appearance- ‘I am so ugly compared to her’, ‘Omg I have such broad shoulders’, ‘I am so skinny compared to the other guys’. It is criticising someone else’s appearance in front of them- ‘With those thighs, you are never going to find a date’, ‘You are not a man because you still don’t

have a beard or a moustache’. It is also criticising someone else’s appearance without their knowledge- ‘Ugh just look at what she is wearing’, ‘At least you don’t look like her’. And many more comments which if you start thinking about are endless.

This is such a toxic practise which can often break people leading to severe depression, anxiety and social isolation. It is heart breaking to know that people prefer to choose friends based on their appearance and not their personality. People find it cool to bully overweight people or extremely thin people, not realising the effect they have on them. Low self-esteem, low self-confidence and

many eating disorders are some of the results. People start doubting themselves and do everything in their hand to achieve that ‘perfect figure’ including either starving themselves to death to lose weight or obsessively eating to gain weight. The eating disorders have an adverse effect especially on females as it leads to dehydration, constipation, undernourishment, bloating, and irregular menstrual cycles. Over the years, there have been many cases of bullying and

making people feel insecure about their own bodies which have resulted in death in the extremities. Body shaming has snatched childhood from many kids who are constantly worried about their shape and size. It has broken many females who are rejected because they are not ‘fair’, not ‘curvy enough’ or just too fat. It has made men feel inferior because no amount of gymming or exercising is helping them achieve that ‘model’s body’. Body shaming is that curse which has led to drug abuse, surgeries and steroids.

But it is time that things changed. People need to realise that God has taken extreme effort to mould every individual and no one is inferior to anybody. Body image according to me is the state of mind and not what we see in the mirror. Our bodies are our own, and not invitations for public commentary, mockery or analysis. Our bodies should be our pride no matter what. Being fat or

extremely thin is not a sin and we need to get over those picture-perfect models. People need to realise that there’s a lot more to life than just looks. I am not saying that making efforts to look good or to stay fit is a crime, all I am saying is torturing your body for things which you have no control over is a big insult to yourself. Everyone is special in their own way and what lies within is

definitely more important and precious than what is seen outside. Its time we shift from self judgement to radical self love, from shame to radiant self-expression, from chasing an ideal to celebrating what is right here and now and from what we weigh to how we live.