1. Fat-shaming contributes to poor mental health. Weight-based stigma was associated with increased scores of depression in individuals with obesity [1]. Unsurprisingly, weight stigma has also been associated with increased body dissatisfaction, and decreased self-esteem [2].
2. Fat-shaming works against weight loss on a metabolic level, and may contribute to chronic disease. Exposure to weight-based stigma and fat-shaming statements has been shown to increase cortisol levels. Cortisol is a stress hormone, and has been shown to inhibit weight loss. It also works against insulin, thereby increasing blood sugar levels. [3, 4]
3. Fat-shaming makes people exercise less. Research has shown that the more weight-based stigma people experience, the more they avoid exercising [2, 5]. There is no evidence that shaming people for their weight motivates them to exercise, and in fact, it seems to do the opposite.
4. Fat-shaming makes people eat more. Exposure to weight-based stigma leads to increased caloric consumption [6, 7]. This directly challenges the notion that shaming individuals to lose weight will have any sort of positive or motivating effect.
5. Do you really need a reason to be kind? Fat-shaming has been associated with a myriad of negative effects on mental and physical health, and has never been shown to have a positive, motivating effect on individuals. Most importantly, though, all people are worthy of respect and should not be judged, shamed, or pressured to act differently due to their weight or appearance.
The next time you’re thinking of making a comment about someone’s weight out of a desire to ‘motivate them’, or supposed concern about their health, consider the points above. You’re only doing harm to people’s mental and physical health when you engage in fat-shaming behaviour.
References are included below the break, and I’m happy to chat about any of the above in more detail on request.
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A message to everyone :
Ever since I began this blog and continuously shared its content, I never asked any of you to follow me, share these posts, or use the Blaze feature to promote them. I've been entirely absorbed in writing articles and translating stories and posts from the people of Gaza without concerning myself with whether they will reach a broad audience or not. My initial goal was to reach any number of individuals, even if it was just one person, in the hope of increasing their awareness. That would have been sufficient for me.
But today, particularly after the recent news confirming the complete shutdown of the internet, electricity, and communications in Gaza, along with the isolation imposed by the Israeli occupation and the brutal and savage bombings happening now as I write these lines, I want everyone to share what's happening. Not just on Tumblr but everywhere you can. Share on WhatsApp, Twitter, Instagram, and for those who are proficient in Russian, share on platforms like VK. If you know Korean, share in Naver cafes. Share with your family, your loved ones, and those you meet on the street. Let everyone know about the monstrous massacres the occupation is committing against Palestinian civilians, teenage girls and young women who have become widows due to the bombings, young children whose lives were forcibly taken from them while they clung to life, and the elderly who hoped for a longer life or a peaceful death beside their children and families, but the occupation robbed them of this, making the old man witness the deaths of all his family members, his children, and his grandchildren, and then he dies alone, hoping to join them.
O People, humans, whether you are Muslims, Christians, Jews, or followers of any religion, my message is for those of you who have humanity, whatever your identity may be. Your silence today means you are participating in an extermination worse than what Hitler did to the Jews, even worse than the victims of all the world wars combined. At that time, there weren't sufficient means of communication, so everyone's excuse was that they couldn't do anything except publish in newspapers. But today, in our current era, there are many available options. So, what's your excuse now?
Your silence and inaction are permission for them to continue their slaughter and the extraction of souls from their bodies. Let everyone do whatever is within their power, and all of us should know that we can do a lot.
♥‿♥
junmyeon + sehun in nyc
Taemin + MOVE stages
يا رب، تولَّ أمرَهم، وكُن لهم عونًا ومعينًا، ونصيرًا وظهيرًا. اللهم، اغفرْ لنا تقصيرَنا تجاهَهم يا رب، بدِّلْ خوفَهم أمنًا، وذُلَّهم عزًّا، وفقرَهم غِنًى، وأحزَانَهم فرَحًا، وتقبَّلْ شهداءَهم في عليين
Ya Allah , take charge of their affairs, be their helper and supporter, their aid and defender. Ya Allah, forgive us for our shortcomings toward them. Ya Allah, replace their fear with security, their humiliation with honor, their poverty with wealth, and their sorrows with joy. Accept their martyrs in the highest ranks of Paradise.