Rude comments, haters and bullying are just a few ways that discriminate against people who do not fit into the perfect size zero picture. It is no doubt, that people who are not stick thin are automatically seen as over-weight, no matter if they are fit and into sports. There are many ways to fight against this prejudice and one of them is to start loving oneself.

First of all, self-love does not start by gaining likes for pictures on Instagram or Facebook, it starts with acceptance and pride. Therefore, there is no need for extra attention and struggling for compliments. It all starts by feeling self-worth and beautiful, with a clothing size of 42 or 36 or any other. People define themselves through their personality and not their outer
looks. Admiration for wonderful character traits is a priority and not a well-trained body. Hence, there is no need to change anything if a person has an awesome personality. Everyone is capable of accepting who they are, and sometimes it just needs a little push in the right direction.

On the contrary, the push might end in a complete disaster, if it comes from the wrong person. Recent studies and statistics show that 71% of all adults think of overweight people as not aesthetic. Notably, this a clear sign that the majority of the population has a tunnel vision of how the world should be and therefore accepting overweight or curvy people is a really hard process and would take a lot of time. Consequently, some people just feel the urgent need to ostracize and bully others for the sake of compromising with their own inner emptiness. And of course, there is no better way to do so than on social media platforms.

As a result of anonymity, anyone of every age can comment on everything, including hate- comments and disregard towards curvy people. With modern technology, it is exceedingly simple to retouch a picture or “improve” a picture by using filters and image processing programs. This does not only counteract with self-love, but more importantly bans the acceptance of body-love and new beauty ideals from the internet. Above all, there are terribly unhealthy challenges such as the Bikini Bridge, Thigh Gap or Collarbone Challenge, where young people get motivated to lose a lot of weight or undergo certain body-framing techniques in order to live up to the new beauty ideal.

In conclusion, body-love and self-acceptance is a very controversial topic and at risk. Hate comments and prejudices in everyday life strike fertile ground when it comes to body-shaming.

Therefore, it is important to counteract this and support organizations and people who want to improve the situation.

Rosanna Mayr 6M // Jänner 2021 // Oberstufe // Non-fiction // Essay