Body shaming and unrealistic beauty standards

Criticizing someone's appearance is not something that any of us should be doing, but we do it and it is more common than we would like to accept. In many societies, it is acceptable behavior even today. It is especially common when someone is overweight or underweight. We tend to comment about their physique casually in a joking manner, or sometimes out of concern with the intention that it will motivate them to work to improve their physique. No matter how good our intentions are, the approach is extremely negative and most of the time damaging to the psyche of the person who is at the receiving end of our comments. We don't even imagine what that person might go through because of our comments.

Body shaming is not motivating. Especially our assumption that any overweight or underweight person is not concerned about their health is ignorant and self-serving. It shows that we think we are better than them and are in a position to offer unsolicited advice about how they should deal with their body. Public shaming anyone because of their body is disgusting, but somehow we tolerate and even encourage body-shaming. If you don't believe me, watch many popular comedy shows and see how they target overweight or underweight people. This all appears harmless on its surface, but it does impact people who are at the receiving end of these comments. There are many ways to make a person aware of their personal health and well-being, but public shaming them is not one of them. Jokes and comments about the physical appearance of people are demeaning, I stopped watching some comedy shows because of their consistent body-shaming jokes. I am guilty of such behavior, I used to comment about the weight of someone thinking that it would motivate that person to work towards improving their health as weight was creating some issues. But I was wrong, no matter what was my intention, my behavior was not proper and I apologized for that. We all should learn this lesson and correct our mistakes. Just because something was or still is tolerated in our society or family for years doesn't make it right. Correcting our behavior whenever we realize our mistake is a proper thing to do. Please stop body shaming others, and if someone is doing this to you ask them to stop, no matter who they are. 

Thank you for reading and please share your views on this topic.