Every day children are bombarded with images, songs, and videos of skinny, beautiful, and altogether unrealistic looking young women, young men, as well as adult women and men. They see these images and think they need to be skinny and beautiful just like these people or no one will like them or accept them for who they are.
Some children will take this notion further than others, but they are almost all subject to body shaming because of what digital media shows them on a daily basis. Body Shaming occurs when someone is made fun of because of their body. The most common type of body shaming is “fat shaming.” This is when someone is made fun of because they are too fat. There is also “thin shaming” and other types of body shaming, but they all boils down to being bullied because something on the person’s body doesn’t meet today’s extremely high standards of what someone should look like. Body shaming can be done by peers, parents, siblings, enemies, friends, and even yourself.
According to The National Association for Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders (ANAD), “The media has commonly portrayed overweight characters as the running joke of the show, resulting in “fat jokes” and a severe manifestation of self-doubt known as body shaming.” Children are subjected to watching these shows and begin to think it is okay to talk about their peers in the same way. Before we know it, body shaming has taken a turn for the worse.
According to bullystatistics.org 94% of teenage girls and 65% of teenage boys have been body shamed. They hear things like “Why is she wearing that? It doesn’t flatter her at all.” Or “He is so thin I can see all his collar and chest bones. Who would want to date him?” and over time, these comments really start to wear on the children. Many who are body shamed will develop low self-esteem, excessive anger, and may turn to eating disorders or self-harm to feel better about their bodies. Bullystatistics.org even noted one rather small study that showed that children who let the body shaming get to them are at a higher chance of developing heart disease, diabetes, stroke, and body dysmorphic disorder (a mental health disorder in which you can’t stop thinking about one or more perceived defects or flaws in your appearance — a flaw that appears minor or can’t be seen by others) because they become so obsessed with their looks.
As parents, there are a few things you can do to try to help your child with their body image and to try to stop body shaming:
- Encourage self care. Let your child know health and self love/care are very important in life. Make sure their main focus is not on weigh or outer beauty, though.
- Monitor your child’s social media accounts so you can step in if you see body shaming (or any other type of bullying) and put a stop to it as soon as you can.
- Make sure your child is not body shaming themselves or others. Many children are hard on themselves and can body shame themselves or body shame others because they are not happy with the way they look.
- Encourage them to look up to realistic, every-day heroes, not the unrealistic models that are shown in the media every day.
- Model empathy and encourage your children to have empathy for others. We never know why someone is struggling with their weight or how hard they have worked to get it off/ put it on. If we teach our children to show empathy and not care about the size of a person, it will help put a stop to the body shaming.
If you or anyone you know needs help with dealing with bullies or body shaming, contact the Child Advocate at The Safe Place at 501-354-1884. You can also call the Crisis Line at 1-888-554-2501 or our Perryville location at 501-889-2030.
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