Wares Ali Khan :
Body-shaming associated with bullying has been a grave mental and social malady for quite a long time in society. The widespread presence of body-shaming ranging from office to home, showbiz to the classroom, and celebrity to ordinary people is a repulsive but familiar phenomenon now. In a true sense, this sort of grievous bullying leaves no one behind. Body-shaming is a peevish habit of making irrational and awful fun of others by pointing out their physical size & composition, color, out-fits, and physical defects.
Everyone on the earth is fine-looking in his/her way but very often we do not possess the honest tendency to conceive the thought. That is why we openly mock, criticize, and ridicule someone’s physical size, composition, proportion, weight, or shape. Body-shaming is a dirty and barbaric act that resembles the terrible state of bullying for sure. According to studies, an average of 45 per cent of adolescents, in gross, experience body-shaming to some degree in a form of bullying in their lives. Several studies have disclosed that body-shaming is more prevalent in boy children. Those who experience body-shaming or bullying tend to have deteriorating mental health and approach self-destructive decisions.
Body shaming is an ugly example of how unnecessarily critical we are as humans. It makes no sense that everyone has to be beautiful according to the so-called prevailing concept of beauty! But in a true sense, many of us are not inclined to accept that fact. Consequently, it’s not just adults who are doing body shaming. Even school-goers are in the action of doing body shaming in the learning seats. At the high school or college level, body shaming and bullying have recently been rampant. There is a long tradition in our society of shunning a classmate for being black or using offensive words to belittle him/her. In truth, there is no point in being beautiful as well as pretty according to what society wants!
When someone falls victim to a slanted comment on a physical issue, he/she steps forward towards self-deleteriousness. We may wonder what will happen to one because of our jokes! But just a trivial remark of ours makes others shocked and saddened intensely. And in most cases, we don’t realize that we, at times, are exclusively responsible for his/her dire grievance and severe torment.
We should not say anything in the guise of laughing and joking about someone. Listening to all the nonsense comments, now and then, the victim suffers from an inferiority complex. Subsequently, body-shaming or bullying can profoundly generate personality disorders, anger, mental stress, acute agony, eating disorders, anxiety and frustration, mood alteration, body dysmorphic disorder, and of course suicidal tendency for the victims regardless of age and gender.
In other words, such bullying connected to body-shaming originates a kind of depression, which can gradually lead to critical and chronic mental illness. This is to be noted that it is our failure not to accept anyone in such a way that he/she desires to be treated. We need to successfully erase the traditional concept of beauty once it has been deep-rooted in our brains subconsciously.
Many people around us intentionally mock others. People who make these indecent pranks are seen to suffer from inferiority complexes or have a longish personality disorder. The one who is ill-fated or frustrated somewhere in his personal or professional domain is the one who does more bullying & shaming. Then, those who once faced body-shaming may later tend to do the same. People who suffer from severe inferiority complexes might find peace by hurting others’ minds. Veritably, bad people are those who love to hurt people’s minds for no reason. A plain joke from one may be a source of frustration for others. On the contrary, self-body-shaming can also happen on the ground of comparison with others’ physiological features.
Awareness needs to be raised so that bullying under the mask of body-shaming cannot exist in any setting. Any behavior that can lead to body-shaming in the family must always be discouraged. If bullying or body-shaming happens towards someone, we should show empathy, extend mental support and stand by them all the way. If a child has a special shape or characteristics in the family, we must not make fun of him/her. If any one of us has any sort of crushing experience of body-shaming or bullying, we should visit a psychiatrist for necessary aid.
In conclusion, if the job of making someone feel good seems very grueling and difficult for us, then at least we won’t make others feel bad. A beautiful mind can beautifully change a society. After all, life is beautiful and we all have to love our life most. Simultaneously, we will no more cause harm to others by making obscene remarks further-this should be our sincere commitment to ourselves, from now on.
(The writer is a teacher & psycho-social counselor).
