OFFENCE AGAINST BODY SHAMING

Table of Contents

WHAT IS BODY SHAMING

Body shaming involves humiliating any person by making inappropriate or terrible remarks about their physique dimension or shape. Body shaming can be carried out in person or remotely via the web and social media and can be done with the aid of your parents, siblings, friends, or people you’re no longer even close to.

Even in a joking manner, remarks about what you consume or how a lot of food you eat constitute physique shaming. Giving anybody advice about weight-reduction plans or praising weight loss is additionally considered physique shaming, whether intentional or not.

Effects of body shaming

physique shaming with the aid of others and taking their terrible comments to heart, it can lead to unhealthy behaviors and mental fitness problems, such as Eating Disorders:
Having a poor physique picture is one of the most important factors for growing disordered ingesting or an eating disorder, such as anorexia, bulimia, or binge eating. You may additionally begin a diet that includes restrictive eating in an attempt to change your body structure or size. But such a weight-reduction plan can spiral into harmful behaviors like skipping meals, fasting, vomiting after eating, excessive exercising, or overusing laxatives.

Body shaming feedback such as Did you lose weight? You seem to be so a whole lot better, can be triggering and create more disordered consuming habits in an attempt to keep or lose even more weight.

We Need to Stop Body Shaming

Body shaming has myriad negative consequences on mental health. Here are some important ones

Adolescents who are body shamed have a significantly elevated risk of depression.
It may lead to eating disorders
Body shaming worsens outcomes for obese women attempting to overcome binge eating.
Body shaming can cause dissatisfaction with one’s body, which then can cause low self-esteem

Being physically lively is usually one of the best things you can do for your fitness and well-being. However, if it turns into an addiction and you engage in compulsive exercising, it can lead to persistent fatigue, injuries, and susceptibility to illness or set off anxiety, depression, or irritability. If you are exercising compulsively, you may additionally also start to withdraw from social situations as exercise will become your predominant focus. Excessive exercising can progress into a syndrome referred to as Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport (RED-S) which takes place when your calorie consumption is no longer adequate for the quantity of strength you are expending to maintain healthy functioning.

Anxiety and depression

Body shaming can set off or aggravate existing symptoms of anxiety and depression. If you are body-shamed in public or on social media, you can also strive to avoid going to school or different conditions where this shaming would possibly occur. You may also withdraw from others and feel isolated and alone. Hearing fundamental feedback about your appearance can also be humiliating, heighten your insecurities, and harm your self-esteem. Consequently, you may also interact in bad self-talk as you internalize these feelings of worthlessness. You may also inform yourself things like I am a horrific person or I am totally worthless.

This can enhance severe loneliness, depression, anxiety, and terrible body image. A child will be judged and people will tell the child’s mother and father to make the toddler lose weight. In the equal way, a teen is noticed by means of loved ones and friends, and most teenagers get bullied because of this reason. And after accomplishing adult existence it simply will become a scary issue. Many start to have bulimia because of this reason.

Stop Talking About Other People’s Bodies

It may be socially acceptable for people to mock and body-shame others, but you do not have to accept, participate in, or tolerate such words or actions. You wouldn’t want that to be done to you, and now you know that it can cause real problems for those it happens to.

So, when you are tempted to point out a person’s body hair or their hair texture, their size, stop yourself. Instead, why not think of something nice to say to the person?

Clearly, they caught your eye, so you could use this as an opportunity to find a positive attribute. “I like your smile” is one idea of a way to compliment another person without speaking negatively about their body.

Notice your thoughts and acknowledge your own conditioning, bias, and/or judgments.
Make an intentional effort to notice what you like, appreciate, or admire about this person (this may be physical or non-physical traits).
Practice this with others and yourself to develop and deepen respect, care, and compassion for yourself and others.

INDIAN LAW

Under Section 509 of the IPC, obscene gestures, indecent body language, and negative comments directed at any woman or girl or exhibiting any object which intrudes upon the privacy of a woman, carries a penalty of imprisonment for one year or a fine or both.

The Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Protection, and Redressal) Act 2013 has also helped women to fight against body shaming. Before this Act, many women were humiliated by comments and gestures hampering their modesty. Section 354 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 also provides against outraging of the modesty of women.