Have you ever felt ashamed of your body? What if you could break free from those negative feelings? Why do people body shame?
In The Body Is Not an Apology, Sonya Renee Taylor explores the origins of body shaming. She explains how personal experiences and societal pressures shape our self-image—and our expectations of others.
Read more to understand the origins of harmful attitudes about our bodies.
Why People Body Shame
Why do people body shame, and why should we even ask this question? Exploring the roots and impacts of body shame, as well as the discriminatory actions aimed at diverse body types, helps us understand how our perspectives on physical looks and self-worth are shaped. This underscores the significance of challenging these detrimental attitudes to cultivate a healthier collective consciousness.
Taylor writes that our bodies frequently carry deep-seated shame originating from personal experiences in childhood and beyond as well as societal expectations and pressures.
Body Shame Rooted in Personal Experiences
Taylor writes that childhood experiences, shaped by communications and engagements with family, friends, and different media, often lay the groundwork for feelings of shame about our bodies. Body shame often takes root during our early developmental stages and continues to be reinforced by the attitudes and comments of relatives, as well as a multitude of messages from different media outlets. From an early age, children internalize societal standards, recognizing the distinction between the accepted norms and those that deviate, with the latter frequently facing rejection.
Keisha’s experience of being mocked for her hair, which sadly led to traction alopecia—a lasting ailment, shows the deep-rooted nature of these harmful convictions. Many individuals who participate in self-love workshops resonate with Keisha’s story, as they too have their own unique histories of feeling that their bodies were in some way “incorrect.”
Childhood trauma and abuse may instill profound and enduring negative self-perceptions, culminating in a persistent and profound sense of embarrassment regarding one’s physical form. Survivors often internalize such events to such an extent that they come to view their bodies as inherently flawed, as though these stories are a fundamental part of who they are.
Body Shame Rooted in Societal Expectations & Pressures
Societal norms also contribute to these deep-seated beliefs by promoting body shaming. Taylor argues that body shame stems from the belief that some bodies adhere to a perceived ‘normal’ while others diverge from this standard.
The idea that there’s such a thing as a ‘normal’ body creates feelings of insufficiency and drives people to strive for an often unattainable and unrealistic ideal. Studies by groups such as the Girl Scouts Research Institute have highlighted how many young girls tend to emulate the unrealistic body images often portrayed in the media, thereby increasing the societal and familial pressures they face.
