How fat shaming takes a toll on mental health

Fat shaming involves criticizing an overweight person about their weight or eating habits. It can be intended to make them feel ashamed so that they work out towards controlling their weight. The belief is that this may motivate people to eat less, exercise more, and lose weight. Sometimes this criticism is done to make fun of their physical appearance.

It is often seen that the people who fat-shame others are slim and never had to struggle with a weight problem. Research studies show that much of the discussion on obesity on social media involves fat shaming, which often turns into harassment and cyberbullying, especially against women. In fact, there are entire online communities where people gather to make fun of overweight people.

However, stigma and discrimination against overweight people cause major psychological harm and worsen the problem. Instead of motivating people, fat shaming makes them feel terrible about themselves, causing them to eat more and gain more weight. The discrimination they face, causes stress and negatively affects people. Numerous studies show that any type of fat shaming causes overweight people to become stressed, eat more calories, and gain more weight.

Being fat for women in Pakistan has become like a taboo, especially for the young girls who are not married. In our country women are targeted and humiliated for being fat which very sad. Families in our country demand slim and smart girls who are beautiful. If you go through the matrimonial page of any newspaper or magazines, it is simply disappointing. The requirements by the groom’s family for the girl are so stupid; they want a slim girl. It’s not only before marriage that girls are targeted, even after marriage they are humiliated by their in laws and husbands. Mostly women after giving birth naturally gain weight and I believe they are not to be blamed for it.

Fat shaming is bigotry. Disrespecting a person on the basis of appearance is an example of prejudice and oppression and it’s never justified. If a person is willing to bully, shame, and disrespect another, then that person is acting as an oppressive bigot. If we as a society want to be committed to anti-bigotry and prejudice, then all incidents of bigotry need to be called out as such, including fat shaming.

Bottom line

Whatever size or shape body you have, it’s important to embrace it and carry it with grace. A person should take a healthy diet instead of starving, just to maintain a healthy lifestyle and look good to feel good for themselves only, but if you still have fat, you should still be confident. However, the better change in society cannot come only if women are confident about their weight, there is a lot of stuff on part of the society, they have to stop fat-shamming people, and making fun of them.

 

by: Abeer Arshad 

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