Why Are Only Women Fat Shamed And Not Men?

Making fun of other people’s appearance is not funny; its narrow-mindedness, ruthless and inhuman. We all are living a hard life and would not want to be judged for our looks or weight at least. I remember my friend and myself walking down the street to a marketplace and people would keep turning their heads back to look at her as though she was an alien. Well, she was 120 kgs and short heighted, you can well imagine that. I was feeling uncomfortable when these people on the street stared at her and talked in the ears, it was very embarrassing. I thought of her, how she must be going through this daily, at work, at a marketplace, at a cinema or a mall. Dr. Atul N. C Peters, Head & Sr. Consultant (Apollo Institute of Bariatric & Metabolic Surgery) talked to us about fat women being openly body shamed.

Body Shaming

People have regarded an acceptable size range for women and anything beyond that is open for body shaming by people. They never look back twice at a male at hissize and pass comments. However, they leave no chance in passing comments when it is comes to a woman. For a woman, who is fat shamed openly, it is hard to live a life where they have to think a hundred times before leaving their house as they feel there are hundreds of people out there to openly comment.

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People have a lot of names to body shame women and there is no end to them. To be a fat woman is living with ridicule and in a state of constant inhumanity. Well, there are some people who can take this but there are some who just can’t. Negativity starts to grow in their lives and these women get into depression or negative self- image. Body shaming haunts women for much longer time than any man.

Social Pressure

Ascompared to women, men don’t have any same social pressure. It is only the women who are expected to watch out their weight. People feel it’s unacceptable for women to be overweight while men are regarded as fine in every way. The financial status and education is same yet men don’t give a priority to their health as women. Men would not care about their weight unless they have health issues.

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The pressure of weight maintenance or keeping fit is more common among women of high socio-financial status whereas men think being big is being strong. They are completely wrong at understanding being strong is not being overweight or fat. Women react strongly to negative comments than men. Women are looked down upon with disgust for being obese in a society that’s obsessed with beauty. Obese women aren't treated as normal, they would be viewed by every eye as to what they eat or wear.

There is a lot more that a woman has to pass through to survive in this cruel world. Only if we could look back and see what damage our words can do to a person. Women need to come out stronger and speak up against body shaming. Peers should at least use kind words and do enough to help their friends lose weight with honor and not embarrass or degrade them. We are all much more than our bodies, respect all.