Body shaming is the act or practice of humiliating a person based on their body type by making critical and/or mocking statements about their body shape and size. The horrible impact shamming has on people is now happening more frequently than ever due to the media and the internet.

We live in a society where a like or heart on a picture is validation and rejection is given out effortlessly.

I like to think that perfection is in the eye of the beholder. However, through social media platforms society often enforces the idea that perfection is toned bodies and what others perceive you as. It is so easy to become advocates of the need to seek approval from others or even judge people because they don’t live up to expectations that most would consider to be perfection.

In today’s society, it’s hard not to change your definition of perfect to match someone else’s. Whether it is someone famous, a newly made mother and or her child, just a guy or a girl;  body shaming can happen to anyone.

Awareness is key. As people gain more awareness of the problem at hand, more people begin to speak against and start a new social norm. Celebrities and mothers alike have stepped up to shed light on body positivity.

Kelly Clarkson, celebrity and mother of two gained heat after she started to put on weight; “People think, Oh, there’s something wrong with her,” she told Redbook in November 2017. “She’s putting on weight. “I’m like, ‘Oh, no! I’m sorry, but that represents happiness in my emotional world.’”

I feel as though women are big contributors when it comes to comparing or judging peoples image.

However, Melissa McCarthy once stated, “With women, there’s this constant weird cultural thing where we’re always supposed to be comparing ourselves with one another,” she told Redbook in March 2016. “Who wore it best? Whose butt’s better? Instead, how about if everyone wins? How intensely boring would it be if we were all the same?”

Though men are not excused from the criticism or disapproval of others. a 2016 survey of more than 1,000 boys aged between eight and 18, 55% said they would consider changing their diet to look better and 23% said they believed there was “a perfect male body to strive for”.

Jonah Hill who has since lost weight also struggled with body image, “I really believe everyone has a snapshot of themselves from a time when they were young that they’re ashamed of,” Jonah stated for a magazine. “For me, it’s that 14-year-old overweight and unattractive kid who felt ugly to the world, who listened to hip-hop and who wanted so badly to be accepted by this community of skaters.”

Body shaming brings on an emotional cycle that leads to depression and other negative mental habits that are hard to overcome. In a world where perfection is constantly a goal, it is hard to remember that no can truly achieve perfectionism without understanding that everyone is perfect in their own way.