By PEACE EJIH
I live in a society where I am not accepted by everyone just because of the way I look. They called me all sorts of names just because I look a certain way. Sometimes I wonder when society will accept me for who I am because society is never satisfied with the way I look. Society made fun of my physical appearance, body size and my scars.
Society called me all sorts of names, either you are too skinny, you are too fat, you eat a lot, when will you start eating, I look malnourished, you have acne, your stretch marks look disgusting, your tribal marks look ugly, you have a big stomach, you’re built like a broomstick.
When would society ever keep shut? When would society ever say no to body shaming? When will society learn to appreciate people for who they are?
Body shaming is seen as when someone makes fun of another person’s body or physical appearance. Body shaming is a norm in society. People “body shame” others because according to them, they feel that is the standard of how a person should look like. Not just society, so many family members have wrecked the self-esteem of the family members.
Body shamers are insensitive and insecure, they don’t understand and care about how others feel, they just want you to look like what they want you to look like.
Body shaming has done more harm than good, out of ten suicides; three are caused by depression due to body shaming.
Body shaming messes with people psychologically. It affects the mental health of the victim. The victim becomes anxious and begins to lose confidence in themselves, low self-esteem begins to creep in, and they start questioning themselves and also questioning God, which leads to depression.
I am a victim of body shaming, my family members body shamed me, not just society. I fell into depression and I was able to fight it and I came out strong, but not everyone is strong enough to fight.
A 300-level criminology student at the University of Jos, known as Rebecca is a victim of body shaming. Society has said a lot of negative things about her. She fell into depression and almost committed suicide but was saved by her family members, Rebecca lives on antidepressant pills to date.
Just because society wants people to look a certain way, they are now causing more harm than good.
When will society ever stop? You can’t stop society but we can turn deaf ears to negative comments and appreciate ourselves. No one can satisfy society, so as individuals, learn to appreciate ourselves first before society will do that because charity begins from home and the world would become a better place to live in.
