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You Should Stop Hating Your Body. NOW

By Youth Ki Awaaz in Health and Life, Society
18th December, 2013

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By Kirti Joshi: 

Body hate is inculcated and accepted at a very young age; killing our sense of self-esteem and self-respect, teaching us that we must change in order to be okay but we do not acknowledge this mere fact that a certain kind of body type which is okay for me may not be okay for you so there is no such absolute perfection of body type. If body type defined the personality and character of a person then models and actor/actress would be the only humanitarians existing in this world.

body acceptance

Jes Baker a blogger form Tucson Arizona, United States of America says that internet is an open forum and the only media that doesn’t have a universal one sided skew. On December 2nd 2013, she wrote an article on her blog about hatred towards fat people and why it needs to be stopped and she has started a project about body shamming where a photo series was posted on the Facebook page named as ‘Bodies Aren’t Ugly. Bullying Is‘, She believes that all body inequality has a lasting effect on every single person involved. She tells how we’ve learned to hate certain shapes and sizes and for that she says American history and the economic story are responsible. We have been given an idyllic body that is presented as a perfect body type and we are told that we must somehow achieve this impossible physique to please others but the day we start demoralizing ourselves for our own body type then we will never be accepted by the society in any shape/size.

The most shocking result that she got in the survey was that 81% of 10-year-olds were afraid of being fat and they were more afraid of fat than they are of cancer, war, or losing both of their parents. A person has rights and should be treated equally regardless of whether they are overweight or not so fat people didn’t feel the need to justify being fat. There is no truth in the lie that certain bodies are good and certain bodies are bad. All bodies just are, whatever that looks like.

She rightly points out in the article that every body type is a perfect body. There isn’t any wrong or “more right” way to be. I believe that you will love everything about this project as it stands for an amazing cause which is created online so just join in to a part of the social revolution and celebrate whatever your body type is and stop the hate, especially the self-hatred.

Join the project here. 

You must be to comment.

  1. Rashi Mathew

    Fat people – the first thing that comes into most of our minds when we hear this is a really fat person, really ugly etc. Is that always the case? Ofcourse,not. My own mother is overweight. But that doesn’t mean she isn’t happy with herself or hates her body or curses herself. She is instead proud of the fact that she is the best mother in the world according to her children. No matter how,one looks , its the personality, love for,each other, intelligence that really matters in the real world. Looks are deceptive. A woman with the best figure, perfect hair, may not even know how to make simple tea. What’s the use of such a woman? What has she contributed to the world other than just being another good looking lady? Making a difference in the world matters,most. Do as much as you can,for your society, for the world that you live in. How you appear to the opposite gender and everyone around you is a trivial thing. Hate surrounds us in all forms, everywhere, everytime. Its important how we deal with it. Let nothing in this world hold you back from showing everyone what you’re capable of and not,judge you for what you look like,or what you were born with. Be yourself. Be happy.

    1. Pragmatic_Dreamer

      I like what you tried to imply in your comment. You are absolutely right when you say, “Be Yourself & Be Happy”.
      However, the fact that you think a woman with a good figure, hair etc who can’t make tea is of “no use” is actually kind of just adding to the shaming culture we are living in.
      Ultimately it is like you said, be happy with who you are, whether it is just another woman who has contributed to being just another pretty girl in the world or a woman who doesn’t fit the industry’s standards of “beautiful”…

    2. Rashi Mathew

      Yeah well, what i tried to imply exactly by that was that contributing to society matters more than what one looks like.. And thank you 🙂

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An ambassador and trained facilitator under Eco Femme (a social enterprise working towards menstrual health in south India), Sanjina is also an active member of the MHM Collective- India and Menstrual Health Alliance- India. She has conducted Menstrual Health sessions in multiple government schools adopted by Rotary District 3240 as part of their WinS project in rural Bengal. She has also delivered training of trainers on SRHR, gender, sexuality and Menstruation for Tomorrow’s Foundation, Vikramshila Education Resource Society, Nirdhan trust and Micro Finance, Tollygunj Women In Need, Paint It Red in Kolkata.

Now as an MH Fellow with YKA, she’s expanding her impressive scope of work further by launching a campaign to facilitate the process of ensuring better menstrual health and SRH services for women residing in correctional homes in West Bengal. The campaign will entail an independent study to take stalk of the present conditions of MHM in correctional homes across the state and use its findings to build public support and political will to take the necessary action.

Saurabh has been associated with YKA as a user and has consistently been writing on the issue MHM and its intersectionality with other issues in the society. Now as an MHM Fellow with YKA, he’s launched the Right to Period campaign, which aims to ensure proper execution of MHM guidelines in Delhi’s schools.

The long-term aim of the campaign is to develop an open culture where menstruation is not treated as a taboo. The campaign also seeks to hold the schools accountable for their responsibilities as an important component in the implementation of MHM policies by making adequate sanitation infrastructure and knowledge of MHM available in school premises.

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Harshita is a psychologist and works to support people with mental health issues, particularly adolescents who are survivors of violence. Associated with the Azadi Foundation in UP, Harshita became an MHM Fellow with YKA, with the aim of promoting better menstrual health.

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Read more about her campaign.

MH Fellow Sabna comes with significant experience working with a range of development issues. A co-founder of Project Sakhi Saheli, which aims to combat period poverty and break menstrual taboos, Sabna has, in the past, worked on the issue of menstruation in urban slums of Delhi with women and adolescent girls. She and her team also released MenstraBook, with menstrastories and organised Menstra Tlk in the Delhi School of Social Work to create more conversations on menstruation.

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A student from Delhi School of Social work, Vineet is a part of Project Sakhi Saheli, an initiative by the students of Delhi school of Social Work to create awareness on Menstrual Health and combat Period Poverty. Along with MHM Action Fellow Sabna, Vineet launched Menstratalk, a campaign that aims to put an end to period poverty and smash menstrual taboos in society.

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A Computer Science engineer by education, Nitisha started her career in the corporate sector, before realising she wanted to work in the development and social justice space. Since then, she has worked with Teach For India and Care India and is from the founding batch of Indian School of Development Management (ISDM), a one of its kind organisation creating leaders for the development sector through its experiential learning post graduate program.

As a Youth Ki Awaaz Menstrual Health Fellow, Nitisha has started Let’s Talk Period, a campaign to mobilise young people to switch to sustainable period products. She says, “80 lakh women in Delhi use non-biodegradable sanitary products, generate 3000 tonnes of menstrual waste, that takes 500-800 years to decompose; which in turn contributes to the health issues of all menstruators, increased burden of waste management on the city and harmful living environment for all citizens.

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A former Assistant Secretary with the Ministry of Women and Child Development in West Bengal for three months, Lakshmi Bhavya has been championing the cause of menstrual hygiene in her district. By associating herself with the Lalana Campaign, a holistic menstrual hygiene awareness campaign which is conducted by the Anahat NGO, Lakshmi has been slowly breaking taboos when it comes to periods and menstrual hygiene.

A Gender Rights Activist working with the tribal and marginalized communities in india, Srilekha is a PhD scholar working on understanding body and sexuality among tribal girls, to fill the gaps in research around indigenous women and their stories. Srilekha has worked extensively at the grassroots level with community based organisations, through several advocacy initiatives around Gender, Mental Health, Menstrual Hygiene and Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights (SRHR) for the indigenous in Jharkhand, over the last 6 years.

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A Guwahati-based college student pursuing her Masters in Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Bidisha started the #BleedwithDignity campaign on the technology platform Change.org, demanding that the Government of Assam install
biodegradable sanitary pad vending machines in all government schools across the state. Her petition on Change.org has already gathered support from over 90000 people and continues to grow.

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