What is body shaming?
Body-shaming or fat-shaming refers to the act of humiliating someone who is overweight or judged to be “fat” through mocking or making critical comments about their size, weight or eating habits, in order to make them feel ashamed of themselves. Body shaming can happen to both men and women and can cause dissatisfaction over one’s body image.
Our Lead Clinical Psychologist Dr. Jaswyn Chin shares more about this harmful behaviour and some tips that can help if you happen to be the subject of such criticism.
Consequences of Body Shaming
Low self-esteem and self-worth: Being subjected to body shaming can lead to feelings of low self-esteem, negative self-image, and low self-worth. This can cause individuals to withdraw from social situations, feel less confident in their abilities, and struggle to build and maintain healthy relationships.
Eating disorders: Body shaming can trigger the development of eating disorders such as anorexia, bulimia, and binge eating disorder. Individuals who are repeatedly ridiculed for their weight or size may feel pressure to conform to societal beauty standards, leading to an unhealthy relationship with food and potentially severe physical health consequences.
Exercise avoidance: Body shaming can also lead to exercise avoidance, where individuals avoid physical activity due to negative body image or fear of judgment. This can have negative impacts on physical health, including obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease.
A research study conducted in 2019 found that one in five adults (20%) in the UK felt shame, and over one-third (34%) felt anxious or depressed because of concerns over their body image. One in eight (13%) adults experienced suicidal thoughts or feelings because of concerns about their body image. Among teenagers, 37% felt upset, and 31% felt ashamed about their body image.
Dealing with Body Shaming
Clearly, there is the need to take action in dealing with body shaming. Building and promoting positive body image can help preserve overall mental wellness. Here are some strategies that may be helpful:
1.You are more than your body
It is important to know that no one has a perfect body and our physical appearances do not define our worth as a person. There are other things to take into consideration such as our personality, character, values, beliefs and ideals. Recognising that we are unique individuals with our own strengths and weaknesses and focusing our energies cultivating our inner qualities and building a healthy relationship with ourselves.
2.Practise self-care and self-love
Our physical health is very important as without healthy bodies, we will not be able to live active, meaningful and enriching lives. We need to take responsibility and be accountable to our bodies through exercising self-care and self-love towards our bodies. Therefore, it is important to have a balanced diet, regular exercise, good quality sleep as well as a healthy lifestyle. It is also important that we be mindful about loving our bodies instead of deprecating our bodies as this will just make us feel miserable. It is also important that we be grateful for our bodies, our good health and ability to enjoy our daily activities.
3. Befriend people and communities that promote body positivity and acceptance
Body positivity is about accepting and understanding that feeling good about our appearance is important to our mental health. Surrounding ourselves with like-minded people and communities will be helpful in overcoming body image issues.
4. Speak up against those who are body shaming you.
Being assertive in speaking against those who body shames us, instead of suffering in silence or tolerating the abuse is important. We can politely tell the other party that while we are thankful towards their comments, we prefer to focus on loving ourselves and feeling positive about our bodies and that it will be appreciated that they refrain from making similar comments in future.
5. Managing your social media platforms
If we are following pages that negatively affect how we feel towards our bodies, it might be time for us to start following pages that promote self-love and healthy living.
6. Seek professional help early if you are unable to cope on your own.
It is always encouraged to seek professional help early if we feel unable to cope effectively with the negative emotions brought about by body shaming or body image issues. Seeking therapy can be helpful in working through difficult emotions and learning adaptive coping strategies to improve our psychological well-being.
