There can be no excuse for body shaming

Body shaming can be traced back to the Renaissance period, during which power and wealth were indicated by the size of one’s body. Large bodies were idealised. The rich had access to food and did not need to till the land, so they appeared larger and paler.

Today, albeit the narrative having changed, wealth is still the focal point from which socially constructed ideas on the ideal body type emanate. With inflation and the availability of fast foods, big-boned people are perceived as lazy and unhealthy and the thinner ones as healthy and wealthy. Today’s world prefers thin to thick.

Body shaming is the act of deriding or mocking a person’s physical appearance. And while this is not considered a crime, online or in person, moral and ethical values make it wrong to shame someone based on societal expectations and other people’s opinions.

Social media has exacerbated the body shaming culture. The entertainment world has also contributed immensely to the culture with Photoshop and CGI used to edit and perfectly curate the perfect Instagram picture, consequently setting impossible beauty standards. 

Physically unattractive

A study on children’s films and books showed 64 per cent of the videos portrayed obese characters as physically unattractive, cruel, miserable, evil and unfriendly and over half of that involved consumption or consideration of food.

Normalising body shaming, with an excuse of expressing ones freedom of expression, only fattens (no pun intended) the very monstrous culture that misleads the youth to cave in to self-imposed pressure, catalysed by socially constructed ideas on the ideal body type. 

Just like women, men hurt emotionally and mentally when body-shamed, and while it may be a Kumbaya pipe dream to eradicate body-shaming, a little more empathy would do society a world of good — especially in the age of filters, likes and selfies.

Mr Maina is a communication and media student at Kenyatta University. [email protected]