STOP BODY SHAMING — THE SCAR THAT STAYS LONG AFTER THE JOKE ENDS

There is a kind of pain that does not bleed on the outside. It sits quietly inside a person and grows. Body shaming is one of them. We have made it so normal to comment on people's bodies that we no longer realize how much damage we are doing. We see someone and the first thing that comes out is about their weight, their shape, their skin, their size. We think we are being honest or funny or helpful. But the person in front of us goes home and carries that comment like a wound.A single sentence can change how someone sees themselves for years. You tell someone they have added so much weight at a family gathering and everyone laughs, but that person spends the rest of the night pulling their dress down to hide their stomach. You tell a young man that he looks too skinny, like he is not eating well, and he starts wearing big shirts in hot weather just to hide his frame. You tell a girl her arms are too big for a sleeveless dress, and she never wears it again, even though she loved it.What we don't understand is that bodies are not just bodies. They are stories. Some weight gain came from depression, from medication, from childbirth, from stress eating because life was heavy. Some weight loss came from anxiety, from sickness, from not being able to afford food, from grief that took appetite away. Some stretch marks came from growing, from becoming a woman, from carrying a child. Some acne came from hormones that the person cannot control. Yet we look at the surface and we judge as if we know the whole story. Body shaming makes people disappear in plain sight. The girl who used to love taking pictures now hides behind friends. The boy who loved swimming now avoids the pool because he does not want to take off his shirt. The woman who loved dancing at parties now sits at the back because someone once said her body shakes too much. It is not that they lost confidence on their own. Confidence was taken from them, one careless comment at a time.And it follows people into the most private places. Into the dressing room where a beautiful dress is dropped because of a voice in the head that says you are not fit for it. Into the mirror where a person stands sideways, breathing in, trying to look smaller. Into the plate of food where someone feels guilty for eating what they enjoy. We have made people apologize for having a human body, for having flesh, for occupying space.If we want to be honest, let us be kind with our honesty. If you truly care about someone's health, ask about their heart before you talk about their body. Ask how they are sleeping, how they are feeling, if they are okay. "How are you really doing?" heals more than "You have added weight oh." Compliment without comparison. Love without conditions. Talk without shaming.To anyone who has ever been body shamed, your body has never been the problem. Your body has carried you through heartbreak, through exams, through long days, through sickness and healing. It deserves to be clothed in what you love, to be photographed, to be fed without shame, to exist without apology.And to all of us, let us do better. Let us leave people's bodies alone. Let us raise a generation that does not have to heal from comments made at home, at school, at work. Let the joke stop. Let the shaming stop. Because bodies change. But the words we speak about them can stay forever.

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