Commentaries: Body Shaming Hurt ... and Wound Deeply!

"You need to eat  Get a little meat to that skin and bones"

"You are so big. Stay away from ice cream and calories"

"I wonder how this swimsuit would look like if you are slimmer"

Words can hurt ... you just didn't realize it. In fact, much of the painful language we hear and use is so deeply ingrained in our lexicon that we don’t even realize how harmful it can be. Body shaming crushes self-esteem and confidence.  The constant mention of a person’s weight creates more stress making the person eat some more.

What is body shaming? the action or practice of humiliating someone by making mocking or critical comments about their body shape or size. Body shaming is the act of deriding or mocking a person's physical appearance. The scope of body shaming is wide and can include fat-shaming, shaming for thinness, height-shaming, shaming of hairiness (or lack thereof), shaming one's muscularity (or lack thereof), or shaming of ones masculinity or the lack thereof.

Body shaming rocks pageantry and we have several high-profile incidents to prove that.

1. Republican Donald Trump is on record making derogatory remarks about women and their looks. Throughout much of his public life, Trump has expressed disdain for women solely based on their physical appearances. Alicia Machado.Miss Universe 1996 caught headlines when Trump referred to her as Miss Piggy and "an eating machine"

2. Coco Arayha Suparurk who is one of the candidates for Miss Grand Thailand 2019, was slammed on social media after she shared a photo on her Instagram comparing Miss Universe Catriona Gray to Miss Grand International  2018, Clara Sosa. She described Clara as “fit” while Catriona as “fat” and this has sparked outrage among pageant fans, especially in the Philippines!

3. The body shaming of Miss Iceland Arna Ýr Jónsdóttir in Miss Grand International 2016. Writing an open letter to Nawat Itsaragrisil - the pageant owner, Anna said: "Your staff told me that I had to lose weight for the finals because I have too much fat on me and also too big shoulders," she wrote. "They told me to eat less and then you would like me more." Body-shaming pageant owner issues non-apology that made Miss Iceland exit competition.

4. After participating in the 2016 Miss Universe competition, Miss Canada Siera Bearchell found herself the victim of cruel body-shaming attacks. Dozens of insecure cyberbullies flocked to Bearchell’s social media pages to make rude remarks about her body and recent weight gain, insulting her for not being as thin or as pretty as she once was.

5. And with Anchilee Scott Kemmis winning Miss Universe Thailand 2021 over 4 other slimmer and toned MUT contenders, we are beginning to fear another round of cyberbullying is on the horizon.

6. Harnaaz Sandhu after three months winning Miss Universe 2021 is back under the microscope when some quarters noticed that she gained weight and looked puffy. A lot of her well-meaning fans were quick to come to her rescue saying the pageant is over.  She deserves to eat all the food that she wanted.

A lot of controversial body shaming issues die down after they were hugging headlines for a while, but these issues have their way of getting resurrected again.  The most talk about body shaming happened in 1996 when Donald Trump called Venezuela's Alicia Machado the worst they ever had after she had massive weight gain.  The issue has risen from the grave when Hillary Clinton made it her campaign issue in 2016.  Of course, Trump denied vehemently the allegedly boorish behavior and sexist cracks.

In the same year, it happened again with Miss Iceland Arna Ýr Jónsdóttir in Miss Grand International 2016.  How long has the issue been sleeping? Almost 20 years! Siera Bearchell's case followed, then it catnapped and snooze back to deep slumber until Coco Arayha Suparurk made a fool of herself in 2018 with she made a poor version of body shaming with Catriona. After the embers of the controversy die down it dozes off again for another year of beauty sleep, and the issue get warmed up for the nth time when Anchilee Scott Kemmis won as Miss Thailand this year.

Yes, Catriona already won, and Harnaaz Sandhu is hugging the limelight, despite the invasion of Ukraine by Russia as the now issue. But body shaming in pageantry is rare and few and far between. And if you only open your eyes and ears, body shaming is an EVERYDAY issue - it is happening right within your breathing distance - in schools, in offices, and the workplace.

Body shaming often takes the form of name-calling. Names like Fatty, Chicken Legs, Stick, Shrimp, Midget Giant, and many others are intended to cause people embarrassment for being overweight, too skinny, too tall, or too short. It is estimated that body-shaming is the most common form of bullying. And labeling too.

This needs to STOP.  Body shaming is NOT an encouragement or should be rationalized as we are only concerned for the candidate's chances of winning. That's why we are pointing this out to her. BULL!  The idea that anyone needs to be humiliated by encouraging her into a healthy lifestyle is cruel - it ignores that person’s right to respect and compassion. 

While body-shaming, in itself, is not a crime, there are circumstances in which invading one’s privacy to accomplish it can be. And we shouldn’t tolerate that.