Self-Talks 4: Stop Body Shaming!

“15 ka pa lang pero para kang 19 na. (You are just 15 years old but it seems like you are 19 already.)”

“Uy, uso rin ang kain, parang liliparin ka na ng hangin eh. (Hey, eating is fine, the wind could blow you away.)”

“Ang liit mo, pero ang bigat mo. (You have a small figure but you are heavy.)”

As a personal creator of this blogsite, I would like to express my stand between the statements abovementioned. It is so sad to hear those words, especially for an adolescent. Adolescence represents a pivotal stage in the development of positive or negative body image which encompasses how we perceive, think, feel, and act towards our bodies.
Imagine those words being told to an adolescent, who is currently at the puberty stage making a person more sensitive and vulnerable, what can an adolescent feel about it? In reference with my own experiences, I felt bad that it made me not want the body I am in.
The influence of body ideals has been harming a lot of adolescents especially in emotional and mental aspects, what made it worse is the society expressing and telling you that you were not able to meet such ideals. The calling-out of someone’s weight status is viewed as a joke but not to the one who is being called out.

There was this issue involving Xyriel Manabat, a Filipino child star, that could be related in this issue. As a child star, she was deemed as a young sweet kid, but as she reaches puberty, of course, it is expected for her to have changes in her body figure. As she posted a photo on her social media accounts, people were surprised reacting negatively and positively. She was bullied online for having a body figure that does not “fit” to her age, as according to the comments in her posts, some even sexualized her. I think it could be redirected to the culture of Filipinos being conservative. I was even able to see a lot of adolescents altering their body images in social media as they fear to be laughed at.

Indeed, it has been problematic, people do not know on how to properly deal with such issues. Body image either boozes or pulls someone’s confidence, yes, there may be adolescents who were unhealthy which caused them to have a body image that does not fit the social standards, we should know that if we think we have to do something about it, it should be us promoting a healthy body image and not giving destructive criticisms.

Moreover, aside from body image, adolescents also struggle to express themselves their gender identities and expressions. We are enculturated where we are not taught on how should we properly adapt to social changes, making us Filipinos conservative to gradual social developments.
Reaching the stage of adolescents assigns individuals in that stage to fulfill new duties but the lack of support and orientation to them bring them to other social issues such as depression, suicides, and other mental and emotional problems. It could even result to resistance.

In conclusion, we are responsible to stop body shaming, starting from respecting each other and promoting healthy body breaking through the ideals set by the cultural standards.

References
- Voelker, D. et al. (2015) Weight status and body image perceptions in adolescents: current perspectives
- Trendingph.net (2020) Xyriel Manabat trending sa social media dahil sa kanyang glow-up pics