Body Shaming in the age of social media

Updated: Mar 8

Publication date: 07.03.2024

But what is the shame of the body?

With body shame we refer to that practice of offending someone for physical appearance throughinsults and judgments such as 'too thin', ' too fat', 'too low', 'too high' etc.

A phenomenon that today unfortunately continues to spread also because of social media, where everyone express an opinion based on the stereotypes we have in our society.

Body Shaming: origins from the past

Although this practice is widespread especially today in the times of social media, its birth goesback a long time. The ancients of the past defined beauty as something to be loved as opposed to ugliness.

But the real beginning was with TV, cinema and covers because, although indirectly, they set standards of beauty.

In the films it was always the character less similar to the canons of beauty to arouse sympathy while the one more similar to arouse charm. The same in the covers, where we have always foundmodels statuary and not with a common physicality.

The growth of the phenomenon with the advent of social media

As anticipated, today with social media the body shaming is increasingly present. This is because of the prototypes of perfectbeauty that are shown to us continuously in photos on social media, especially in the profiles of influencers.

This pushes people, especially young people, to look like thoseperfect figures to try to be more like them. The physicality, the external appearance, the way of dressing, but also the way of doing and thinking, almost becoming a copy.

Why does this happen? the more a person looks like them and the more they are appreciated. In this way it is considered beautifuland therefore suitable to meet the standards of beauty.

What are the consequences?

The main problem is that often those who want to imitate theseperfect figures don’t notice that the photos they are fascinated by are retouched or obtained thanks to the help of poses, lights and effects. Not seeing then, that those figures that apparently seemperfect in reality are not.

This phenomenon is likely to create shame and insecurity, leading people to have a bad relationship with their body. More and more frequent the appearance of health problems such asDCA , depression and mood disorders that arise from this mistaken perception of reality.

On social media everyone has the opportunity to express theiropinion, and often we are faced with comments from others about our appearance, positive or negative. Although not required, theseaffect how everyone lives the relationship with their body.

How to drown out this problem?

The first step is to accept that we all have flaws and that no one is perfect. Learn to improve what we don't like but in the right way, respecting your own body and that of others. Limiting comments that often can create discomfort.

A great help can come from influencers. There are so many of them who show themselves in simplicity, without filters and in less perfect moments than they are used to showing. This is to prove that they are ordinary people like us, with defects and fragility, becoming a way of healthy reference models.

There are more and more social profiles struggling to spread messages of body positivity and body neutrality, pushing to value every type of body and the value of the person independentof this. Also numerous pages against cyberbullying and body shame. Themes increasingly addressed to educate people to respect others.

Conclusion

Social media is therefore a double edged sword. On the one hand, because of the wrong messages and the 'keyboard lions' that feed hatred with criticism, they risk becoming dangerous by makingthe way of living the relationship with your body become wrong.

On the other hand, they can help to break down the wrong idea of perfection that has been imposed in years. The important thing is to exploit them correctly, educating to respect and promoting the acceptance of every type of body that, in respect of health, must be seen as beautiful also and precisely because it is different.

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