Body Shaming: teach your children differently

When I was 7 years old I learned how to spell encyclopaedia, I was so proud of myself and whenever anyone asked I could answer it in a simple second.

When I was 7 years old, a classmate, someone who's face and name I no longer remember, told me something I would never forget. They told me I was "fat". I still forget, even now, how to spell encyclopaedia. I always remembered that I was "fat". On and on again the cycle continued, each year, "fat" came up to label me. "Fat" became something that I considered bad. The word "fat" regurgitated itself throughout my life the same way I regurgitated all of my food when I was 14. A constant calculator in my brain, see, the slice of my own birthday cake symbolised nothing but becoming fatter to me. It became a number, a calorie. 

Fainting became an accomplishment, being unable to concentrate in class meant that I was winning. 

Winning what? 

I wasn't winning. I was being defeated by an illness within my brain. An illness that developed and in a small way began the same day I was taught that I was "fat" by somebody else. 

I learnt that I was "fat" by other people's words, I can unlearn this, the same way I can re-learn how to spell encyclopaedia. I am going to learn how to say yes to my birthday cake, Hell, I'll have two slices.

- me 

I want to know why body shaming has become ingrained in our society. Both the person that first called me fat and myself were only seven years old. How did they know that calling me fat would hurt me? Why did I know that it meant a bad thing, that the word 'fat' was already a negative in my mind. We were only seven years old. 

Our society has used mass media, from movies to news articles, to form a foundation for body shaming. Eating disorders have the highest mortality rate of any mental illness ( http://www.anad.org/get-information/about-eating-disorders/eating-disorders-statistics/ ). So why is it that we exist in a society that is so determined to tear women and men alike down over the shape and size of their bodies, whether they are big or small? 

Parents and guardians need to stop teaching their children these ways. They need to not snicker at a larger woman or look in disgust at a smaller one. They need to not say judgemental things about an obese man at a gym. They need to show their children how to appreciate that all bodies are fine, all bodies are simply bodies. If they fail to show this then I hope that the kids, even the one that called me fat, never consider doing something harmful to look a certain way. These parents are planting a toxic seed into their minds, allowing it to grow. It's all very well and good while these parents water it, but what happens when the kids realise the toxic roots are embedded there? Will they fear eating? Will they harm their bodies to contort them?

This body shaming system needs to stop. The only way to stop it is for it to slowly cease to exist. This can only be achieved by generations teaching their children positive ways. Despite the ways they may have been taught, these days it is their job to come to their senses and at least help their own children. 

Imagine a world without body shaming.