Five Women Discuss Their Struggle With Body Shaming

Dealing with body shaming can be a life-long journey. Not only does it makes one feel insecure about their physical looks, but also affects their confidence. Women are time and again reminded of how they should adhere to the ideal body type to be accepted by society. Sometime back a textbook for school children mentioned the ideal body size for women to be 36-24-36. It speaks how deep-rooted the problem is.

We are all born so beautiful. The greatest tragedy is being convinced we are not, said Rupi Kaur. Body shaming is defined as a type of bullying that targets a person's physical appearance. As implausible it may sound, most times people are subjected to body shaming by their peers and family members. Being quite skinny myself, I have often been subject to body shaming as people suggest me to "gain weight to look better" or "eat more". As an early teen, I used to hate the fact that I was so skinny as I found people often mocking me calling by names. I wanted to look and feel better about myself.

According to a study conducted by Fortis Healthcare, 90% of the women involved in the study admitted that body shaming is a common behaviour they experience in their daily lives. 84% of women believe that women are more likely to face body-shaming than men. The study was conducted on 1244 women aged between 15-65 years across various Indian cities.

Actors like Ileana D'Cruz, Sushmita Sen and Sameera Reddy among others have been actively talking about how body shaming is harmful.

Ileana D'Cruz opened up about her body dysmorphia for 15 years which abstained her from accepting her own body. However, her recent posts about body positivity suggest that the actor has finally come around to embrace her body for good.

On the other hand, actor Sameera Reddy is often seen embracing her curves, white hair and stretch marks defying all odds and society's perceptions of a perfect body. "Fitness is so much about being mentally in tune with your body and changing our narrative in your head," she wrote in one of her videos on body affirmations.

Sameera Reddy pens note on weight-loss journey after losing 10 kgs

Not just celebrities, but commoners like you and me too are subjected to body shaming in our daily lives. It has been normalised for too long that we accept unsolicited opinions about our bodies in the form of advice to look better!

Here we speak to 5 women who share their experiences about being body shamed.

Talking back as a coping mechanism 

One of my friends who is a literature student at Delhi University, on condition of anonymity, shared that she was subjected to body shaming as a kid and during her early teens when dealing with body-shaming is comparatively harder. "But then I used to think this was the most savage reply - "I eat on my own accord, first pay for me then talk back."

A Supporting Partner and Family

Talking about her difficult struggle of dealing with body shaming, college student Smita Singh who resides in the metropolis of Delhi, mentioned that she was often fat-shamed during her high school days. "Despite all the name-calling, I started accepting my body for what it was - beautiful and healthy. I often felt insecure about my body while getting intimate with my boyfriend. Yet, he helped me love it and I feel your partner and loved ones play a major role in making you feel better about yourself."

Self Love

"I hated my body. The curves and the stretch marks," shared a college student from Indraprastha University of Delhi, while speaking to SheThePeople. "I used to wear sleeved tops as much as I could to hide the scar on my shoulder as I hated it. But one day, I decided that enough is enough. I can't hide it anymore because it is a part of me. And that's when I realised I was just being silly not to love my body enough."

Another young college girl from a two-tier city, Rama Singh, shared that as a kid, she received a major scar on her left leg and often felt insecure revealing it while wearing short dresses. "Step one towards dealing with body shaming was acceptance. I started accepting that it was a part who I am and I couldn't run from it no matter how bad I wanted to. So I started embracing it instead and we have come a long way, I suppose."

Personally speaking, over these years I learnt that my body is beautiful as long as it is healthy. I love the fact that I took care of it no matter what other people said. I had people in my life who I could rely on to feel that I was much better than other people's opinion of me and this made dealing with body shaming so much easier.

Share your experience with body shaming, if any, and how you dealt with it in the comments.

Views expressed by the author are their own.