A Lose Lose Situation –
August 4, 2019 – So rampant is the negativity arising from the ‘perceived’ faulty body size that it works both ways. People too thin are feeling the pain as well. The greetings these days are punctuated with a comment (and scrutiny) on one’s ‘weight’. And that does not apply to the ones getting married! The modern Indian obsession of “when are you getting married?” is now replaced with “What are you doing with your weight?”. Let’s accept it, body shaming is of two types: direct (criticising overweight people), and indirect (both subtle and blatant messages that the society throws via environmental cues and via media — visualise toothpick thin models here?). In a world driven by social media appearance pressure, being thin does not necessarily translate into being healthy and vice versa. It is time to own up to ourselves, stop body shaming and focus on lifestyle corrective measures that promote good health, writes Kavita Devgan Let’s accept it, body shaming is of two types: direct (criticising overweight people), and indirect (both subtle and blatant messages that the society throws via environmental cues and via media — visualise toothpick thin models here?). Even the “well wishers” tend to go wrong here. More often than not, body shaming starts at home — a sister shaming her brother into lose weight so he can score a good-looking girlfriend; a father packing off her 24-year-old daughter who has just finished her medicine studies for a strict three month ‘get thin’ programme at a health farm, as he intends to find her a match soon; a friend poking fun of someone’s losing battle with weight in public or a colleague sniggering at someone going for a second helping of the dessert… These are all real life instances that one has encountered in one’s practice as a nutritionist. The effect on a person’s body image and self esteem is an instant negative.
