Body-Shaming or Not: The difference it makes!
Some years ago while I was in secondary school, I was categorized alongside others as being ugly and not smart. There was George also in the category of ugly and dumb according to them. My classmates then were fond of grouping us into pairs as boyfriend and girlfriend.
Aside from the ugliness and dumbness, the original owner of the class sees us as being too old to be in that class as we actually repeated the class and ended up being classmates with our juniors. We got nicknames that depicted their views of us, I got ancient vulture and I can’t remember George’s name. We were actually not the only persons who repeated that class but somehow we were the most picked at.
So back to the pairing story, I was paired up with George as my boyfriend and I would always reject it because in my mind George was too ugly to be my boyfriend. I was never among the perfect girls in school, my school uniform was always big because I had a big body and my mum wanting to shield me from the wrong exposure would always remind the tailor to make it bigger than my size for me.
Fast forward to some years after secondary school, I saw George and he was looking handsome and cool. I was also looking good too as we have both grown up from being the ugly and dumb fellows they thought we were, to good-looking, smart, and sharp as one of my classmates who saw me recently commented.
All we needed was growth with the right nutrient and a switched mindset. We now know better than to shame people base on their level of intelligence and facial beauty. Because a person is not perfect according to you does not mean they should be treated less a human.
At creation, God said, let’s create man in our own image, so that ugly person you see is God’s image in case you don’t know. If that person looks ugly to you that means God is ugly too.
If God wanted a perfect world, he won’t have created a diverse world. But he knew perfection can only be attained so he created us imperfect watching us grow into perfection as he has always desired. Everywhere and every day, we have found different means to express discrimination. We find it so easy to look down on others as long as they don’t fit in to our definition of perfect.
Everyone has an inner battle they fight and you still want to give them outside battle of acceptance, that’s sheer wickedness. Even if you don’t accept them, it is not in your place to express it to them.
Some people will go to the extent of saying “that’s how I am created”, if only you know more about your identity, you will understand that your identity is to love your neighbor as yourself and not lesser than yourself, and to be kind to other people. Which means whatever you will accept should be what you should give out to others. There is enough toxic going round, don’t increase the percentage with the words of your mouth and your actions.
We lost George some years ago but the small memories we had lingers. While you are still breathing, do good to others.
To establish a sane society, God is counting on you.
