We all
want to feel good about ourselves, and it’s always easier to put down others
who may not look like us instead of taking a moment to look in the mirror and
ask ourselves, “Am I healthy, comfortable and confident in my body.” Why should
we judge or determine what somebody should look like. Whether they should gain
weight or lose weight is only that person’s decision to make.
Body-shaming
whether it is fat-shaming or skinny-shaming it is everywhere and is hateful and
hurtful and almost all of us go though it at one time or another in our life.
Some people think that fat shaming is a good thing to do because they think it
is a motivator for that person to lose weight. People don’t understand that
obesity is a food disorder that has the potential to be as complex as
anorexia. As with any unhealthy
relationship with food, there are always psychological issues. People don’t
want to acknowledge that people who are obese are sufferers who could be ill
and feel helpless. There isn’t just one
cause that can trigger an eating disorder; parents could have had food issues,
fat-teasing at home or at school, obesity in childhood, and family
relationships could all be causes for eating disorder.
People
that fat-shame tend to believe they are benefitting society by pointing out
that all obesity is caused by over eating. I believe people who are obese from
over eating have a binge eating disorder. In my opinion binge eaters have an
addiction to food and they deserve to be treated with the same compassion that
we offer people suffering from anorexia. In the article "Body Politic", Chernik
writes about being congratulated for her only having 10% body fat compared to
an average women having 25% body fat at the same age. We as a society have no
right to shame anybody over his or her body. If someone is overweight or
underweight and happy it’s none of our business. People with these disorders
need to be educated in a healthy eating lifestyle instead of being made fun of
and shaming them.
Fat
shaming is just plain wrong. Research published by University College London
suggested “ people who felt discriminated against because of their spare tire, which
had been the butt of jokes, or given worse service in shops or restaurants were
actually more likely to gain weight. “ “They ate more to comfort themselves;
became too ashamed to go to the gym and risk ridicule from the toned. Those
treated kindly, meanwhile, tended actually to shed pounds.”
Standing up against fat-shaming or any
shaming ensures that everyone gets to make private decisions about their body,
and that everyone gets to have their decisions respected, whether they decide
to lose or gain weight, dye their hair pink, or get their body covered in
tattoos and piercings. Other people’s bodies are their business. Eating
disorders are a lonely place to live whether it obesity or anorexia or any
disorder and we should not judge or name call.
The act of fat shaming and skinny shaming are both terrible ways to go about motivating somebody to alter their ways. If somebody were to be negative with me and point out only the negative things about me or my body, my brain would most likely enter a darker place, and I would be much more likely to just fall back into the same routine. It applies to other things in life too. If I were at work and my boss were to tell me I am doing a bad job, I would lose all motivation to even try to do a better job. Alternatively, when my boss commends me for the work that I have done, I get a sense a pride and am motivated to keep up the work and or try to do more work to hopefully get more recognition. This makes me think of the article, “The Body Politic,” when the sickly skinny girl is getting the body fat testing and the man operating the tests says, “Wow only 10% body fat, you’re the winner for today.” Although it is taken the wrong way by many people, I think that he was just trying to be motivating towards the girl. His comment is much better than him making a comment about how skinny she is in a negative way. It may not have exactly motivated the girl, but it was better than him using negative terms towards her. That may have only caused the girl more issues than she was already dealing with.
ReplyDeleteThe act of shaming based on what their body looks like is unacceptable. Everyone is different, and everyone is beautiful. Some people like to think that fat shaming is worse than skinny shaming, but it is really not. However, body image is a very touchy subject, because everyone has a preference. Some people might like curvier girls, and some people might like thin girls. However, it is human nature (especially for females) to want what they don't have. What people say might also be taken the wrong way. Like what Mike said above, in the article "The Body Politic" the man operating the body fat test did not mean to say anything offensive, but people take it as such sometimes because an extreme low or high in body weight is deemed unattractive. I feel like the solution to this problem is to accept and find beauty in everyone, no matter what they're body type is.
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