BODY SHAMING- A NEW VIRAL NEGATIVE BEAUTY TREND

Oh my God she’s so fat, its disgusting!! Her make-up is so not on point. Oh look he’s so skinny, does he even eat? Yeah! That’s what we hear people commenting and judging each other these days. Some People always demean others and ridicule by saying such mean things? What is with the weight and fat they don’t like? Is it so necessary to look so good and attractive always? Do we really need to constantly worry how our body looks? Is it so important? I think no. Not really..To ridicule and judge others based on their appearances, be it male or female, white or black, skinny or fat is Body Shaming or Fat Shaming. You will always be attacked for not being “perfect” or not as per the “standards”.

Communication has become so strong these days. With the rate of internet and social media usage things have become less personal and more public. Whatever you do and wherever you go, people make it public. Young boys and girls post their pictures on social media for getting maximum likes and comments, but they get judged and at times they don’t take the negative comments easily, in turn leading to self-doubt and lower self confidence, which is really not good! They need to know that they are beautiful the way they are and need not change for anybody. We should feel comfortable in our own skin and not be insecure because haters are going to hate anyways.Body shaming has become so common these days that the girls have started starving or eating less to maintain that ‘hour glass figure’. Starving and under eating  leads to anorexia and depression ,or one may get anaemic .That constant urge to look good and achieve a great body and be better than others is taking a toll on these poor souls.

Even ladies with post pregnancy bodies get bashed for being overweight!! Do these people even understand what a woman goes through the process of carrying a baby for nine months in her womb and delivering it with acute pain? She becomes a mother and how can anybody say she’s overweight? Its mere stupidity. Everywoman goes through this ‘beautiful’ phase. Even celebrities have become targets of body shaming.Aishwarya Rai Bachchan was bashed for her post pregnancy weight gain. It’s not graceful at all to say such things. Actresses Vidya Balan, Sonakshi Sinha, Parineeti Chopra have been constantly criticised for being overweight.

Hollywood and International modelling industry too support body shaming. Few months back Singer/Actor Selena Gomez was criticised for looking fat in her vacation pictures.   She recently gave an interview where she revealed that she is struggling with Lupus and underwent chemotherapy. You never know what one is going through. Albeit the struggle she has her songs topping the Billboards. Atta Girl! Kim Kardashian west recently said in an interview that body shaming is the real reason she doesn’t smile in pictures.

Top model agencies do not encourage plus size models, Like Victoria’s Secret not only refuses to let plus size models walk its runway, the retailer does not even sell larger sizes. Size zero models dominate the runway. Though recently Marc Jacobs put a plus size model on his runway show at New York Fashion week 2015.Plus size models should be given equal opportunities as the size zero models are given.

Exercising and eating in moderation is really fine as it keeps us fit and healthy, it’s another thing to want to lose weight, but reducing weight for the fear of being called fat and obsessing over it unnecessary is not a great idea. We gain weight for many reasons like consuming lots of fat/junk food and not exercising, hereditary problems, hormonal issues, binge eating, erratic eating timings etc. Nobody likes to gain weight or get skinny and being called over or underweight. It happens. Our society has expectations and stereotypes like “ fat people eat all the time so they are fat”, “People who are thin don’t eat much” Lot of websites these days write about how to lose weight in 10 days, what kind of clothes one should wear to  look slimmer. And we do read and follow them to look good. Our appearance certainly does not define the kind of person we are.

Every advertisement on television has women in fact even men talking about fairness creams and getting light tone skin. What we fail to understand is that nobody has to become fair by using such creams to look pretty and beautiful. It’s time now to change the mindsets and these stereotypes and stop categorizing men and women as white,black,curvy and skinny. Let’s embrace our flaws and learn to love ourselves. Let’s learn to appreciate each other and spread positivity around us.

Stay healthy and happy.