We are in a time where people are getting conscious of their bodies more than ever, and body shaming is becoming a thing people, ladies especially are becoming less tolerant of.
What is body shaming?
Body shaming is simply making someone feel uncomfortable about their body (shape, size, features) through your words or actions.
Body shaming is such a cruel thing to do, and no one deserves to be body shamed.
Below are the experiences of FIFTY women who have experienced body shaming:
“I’ve always owned my flaws. So it was hard for people to body shame me. Thin. Big ear. Brown teeth. Even though I knew they were flaws. I turned them to beauty. I’m proud of them. I showcase them like magic.” – Beth
“Hello Pint size!” This came from an elderly bully lady.” – Cecilia
“Once in a while I get insulted for being too tall. Made me begin to question God on why he created me to be this tall.” – Peju
“The last person that told me my tummy is big will still be regretting why she said that because I told her, “Do you know how many kids have passed through this tummy? Don’t ever repeat that again. I don’t owe anyone a flat tummy. It’s my victory over CS and delivery room. Don’t let me start calculating all the faults in and out of you.”
Case closed.
If I ever want to flatten my tummy, it must be on my own terms maybe if it’s making me uncomfortable.” – Amy
Read: 10 Things You’ll Regret Not Doing Now in Five Years
“Hmm. I’ve always been body shamed from childhood. The person told me when I was eight years old that I’m short and would not grow past my height then. I was scared then but thank God I grew taller than that. Thinking about it now I laugh about it. I was told I’m ugly and as I became an adult, a woman asked me if I am sickled because I was smallish and looking sick according to them. That I look so slim that I should put on some weight.”- Mercy
“I was told I was too fat by my ex and after many years of breakup, he is still begging.” – Nora
“I usually get a lot of comments about my feet. I wear size 42/43. I’ve heard from a lot of people that I’d have to get a cobbler to make my own shoes. Even people whose feet are as long as mine. The thing is, my feet are thin but very long so it accentuates the length.
One time, one girl wouldn’t stop going on and on about how long my feet were and how everyone in my family had such long feet. I had to tell her that the shortest person in my family is way taller than she is. Family of short people!” – Favour
“I grew up to know ‘big eyeballs’ as my second name because of my big eyes. But that is their cup of tea, all I see in the mirror are sexy eyeballs.” – Bukky
“Some said I’m too big with big tummy and that I’m getting old without a husband yet. One even said they wonder how I’m going to look like when I give birth.
They said I’ll not even be able to pass through our door again, but seriously this body has been my secret and I’m glad heaven decided to bless me with it.
Before, I always feel sad but now I carry myself with a lot of confidence because anything I wear fits perfectly. I always tell them that I’m only showing the glory of God.” – Funmi
“For fat people like us, body shaming is an everyday thing.” – Esther
“I lost a lot of weight and I was told to look at how thin I was.” – Beauty
“At 12, I already had a big protruding belly. My high school classmates would laugh at me that I had a big belly, breasts and bum and not a figure 8. I was bodyshamed for not having hips. I’ve been told countless times by people that my hips are flat. It used to get to me but not anymore.
At 11, I was using size 42 and the insults wouldn’t stop coming, that I would not find my size in the market. Funny enough, till date, my leg never passed 42.
In the university, body shaming got worse, it’s either my big belly, my nonexistent hips or my fat self. I had this friend who would mock me that her sister after 4 kids had a flat belly than I did. It got to me a lot till I became defensive one day and told her I didn’t need her opinion on my body.” – Constance
“I was called thin legs in high school. I lost a huge sense of self worth and battled with inferiority complex. I couldn’t wear short gowns or knee-length skirts until I left university.”- Bethel
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“I got called flat ass. But today when I walk I feel something shaking behind?????
I don’t know if it is the few random squats I did before bathing or it is because of the fact that I added weight somehow.” – Queen
“Body shaming started for me as a kid, but thank God for my Dad. God won’t stop blessing that man. I was told I had big eyes, big teeth, big cheeks, and was given names such as “eye popping”
To make things worse, I started wearing glasses at age 9. I got the name “glass eyes”, but my dad won’t stop telling me I am “Miss world”, only his opinion mattered.
So, none of the body shaming got to me.
I thought that was the end of body shaming until I became a teenager and they started again: “big breast”, “flat bum, “too tall”
In fact, one of my mom’s friends even told me she doubts if I will ever get a husband cos of my height. I was barely 15. Now I’m married to the sweetest man on earth.
My dad started calling me “Agbani Darego”. He even said if I became very tall, he would send me abroad to play basket ball.
All they saw as flaws then has made me a very beautiful woman. Thank God for my dad, he saw what they were too blind to see. My self esteem is out of this world. He helped me build it intentionally. I’m doing same with my kids, In fact, I have started with my baby girl.” – Tunmise
“As a fat girl, I’ve always been body shamed from childhood. I got used to it but then I became defensive. Now, I don’t even care about what anyone thinks and this has made me not to be friendly towards people. I keep a straight face so I know how to treat any fvckup you bring especially when I’m meeting you for the first time. I’m trying to keep a smiling face but it not working.”- Vivian
Read: 10 Signs You’ll be a Badass Successful Woman
“They told me I have tiny wrists. I have friends who made me feel so self conscious that I felt ashamed way back. But today, I don’t even care. As long as I’m healthy.” –Yomi
“I get body shamed for my height. I’m 6ft 1” tall.
I hear things like, “Are you a man or woman?”
“How can a woman be this tall?”
Back then in school, they would say go to the back, you will block our view here. I have grown past that now. I have come to appreciate myself.”- Dami
“A friend told me to give birth to the baby inside my belly already just because I have a big tummy.” – Bunmi
“In high school, classmates called me thick lips. I used to stomach it up until I stood up to some of them and shamed them with their own flaws. That was when they stopped. One of my sister’s friends used to shame me because my voice is kinda masculine. Whenever he says my voice is bass, I tell him I smoke weed.” – Dee
“I get body shamed for my dark spots from pimples. People describe me with it but I don’t give a damn. My self esteem is as high as……..” – Bukola
“I was told that I was ugly by an aunt.” – Onyinye
“I have been called smallie/portable virtually all my life. But I began loving my stature when I was around 18. Now, I’m in love with this beautiful petite smallie frame of mine.” – Olabisi
“I was told I was short and not beautiful. Thank God I grew to be strong and love myself.”- Temitope
“I get body shamed a lot. Someone recently said my hands looked like sugarcane because I’m slim. Several people have said my collar bone makes my neck look like a well. And so many comments on my height, shape. Thank God for a healthy self esteem, people are not nice.” – Adetola
“I was told I have yam legs and I grew conscious of that. But now, I love to flaunt them anyhow.
Or that I have a masculine build. I got to the UK and people were complimenting how toned I looked.” – Sekemi
“I didn’t wear skirts for a very long time because of my thick legs. But these days, I don’t care anymore. I even look hotter in skirts.. Anytime I wear a skirt, I get more attention from men.” Titilayo
“I was told I had thick legs in my high school. I didn’t have short dresses at all. Now that I’m paying my bills, I wear what I like. I wish what people said paid bills. My tailor always made long dresses for me until recently; I just give her my dresses to make anything she liked, aunty made short dresses… I’m rocking one today” – Grace
“I have been called short or smallish severally.” – Chioma
“I have a particular scar on my left hand (caused by cane) that doesn’t allow me wear sleeveless and a friend of mine saw it one day and asked rudely if I went to go and steal.
I also get body shamed for my height and big stature because people would rudely say nasty things like, “You should get married earlier. Dammy, go and be a bouncer/join force. You are too fat/too tall. As if I sought for their opinion.” – Dammy
“I have small breasts and my dad taunted me with it for a long time. He said guys are squeezing it and that made it small I was still about 18 – 20 years and still a virgin then.
It made me not accept my breast as it isGrace and even now I’m still conscious of it. Even when I’m home with my husband, it takes lot of talk from him before I will go braless. If I go visit people I will remove my bra when I’m on the bed and before 6am the next morning I would have worn it.”- Elizabeth
“My big stature was always something I was yabbed about throughout childhood by everyone except my immediate family members and it affected my self esteem till I grew and decided it wasn’t my fault I had it and chose to enjoy it.” – Grace
“I get body shamed severally but the most recent was a lady I don’t know from Adam telling me, “Come and join my online class, let’s teach you how to look sexy.”
I simply told her, “I don’t want to look like you, you look like a fish.”
She felt so embarrassed. Seriously, I feel people should stop this madness. Some people have been driven into depression by this act. You don’t know what people go through psychologically because of their shape and size. It’s totally unfair to add your bad mouth to their situation.
Funny enough some of these slim people can eat a whole cow, but because nature or should I say their body is on their side, the feel they are small gods.
Some of them suffer from diabetes, high cholesterol, high BP despite their shape.
My shape and size is my headache not yours.” Adebola
“I was body shamed while growing up by siblings, classmates, friends etc. that I had a big head. God being so kind, he blessed me with high IQ and intuition. So I never let it get to me as I always respond that they should pray for theirs to be like mine so they can be half as intelligent. To God be the Glory, I also grew up beautifully.
Imagine been exposed to all that body shaming as a child. I have always told myself that I will raise my children up to love themselves and how they were created.”- Anne
“I was once introduced to this young man in my hay days. You know those days when everyone begins to think you should be off with a man already.
TBH, he wasn’t my kind of person but there is no harm in learning another’s character. The “get to know ourself” stage.
So, he took me out to eat lunch. When we finished, we took a jolly stroll through Herbert Macaulay enroute my uncle’s office at the time.
No denying the fact that I was chubby. I mean, I was the fine huggable chubby. You know, the chummy chummy. See me crushing on myself.
Anyho, he took a look at me and said…”Ibidun, if I must marry you, you have to lose weight.”
Me that was looking for code red before. I simply told him, “Don’t you ever talk to me in such manner” and walked off.
Everybody was disappointed in the fact that it didn’t work. But I was glad I got rid of this obnoxious being.” – Mobo
“I was in high school when a certain Joan said I had very big eyes. I held on to that until a year in the university when I really stared at myself in the mirror and saw curious eyes. I knew Joan was wrong.” – Davida
“They used to say my boobs would grow larger than watermelons. I was taunted. I had to start wearing loose shirts to avoid flaunting them. But I grew into the breasts and now it’s a bomb! I love me like this.”- Mae
“I get body shamed everyday. Yesterday, a man called me fat.” – Gladys
“I’ve been body shamed so many times from being called a plywood to a tooth pick. Have I outgrown it? Maybe not.” Adeola
“I’ve been told many times that I have a man’s stature.” Yinka
“I was told I’m too lanky for a girl, and I started detesting my stature. I hardly take full pictures because of that.” – Onyinye
“I have a bow scar on my left leg. No one can explain how it got there. People have body shamed me for it a lot. I later got to love it when I got to uni. I have a particular female friend that can’t so without touching and caressing it.” – Damilola
“I am a chubby lady, endowed with breasts and bum. Growing up wasn’t that easy because I endured body shaming from friends and families. I never knew they appreciated my stature and wished they were the one with the amazing shape. I remember when I and one of my classmates had an issue. She said, “Do you think you’re fine? Are you aware that your big bum is full of sh*t?
I have people who told me that I should be ashamed of my big bum and breasts and I should not come near their boyfriends so as not to seduce them.
I had no idea that they were jealous, that I have what they spent money to achieve. I look at myself today and thank God for having what people are using money to achieve through surgery and gave me free of charge. People like and appreciate my shape today.” – Kemisola
“My teeth. My milk tooth was very white but the one that followed is so horrible and brown. I’ve had exes that told me my teeth embarrasses them but now? I don’t care.” – Praiseberry
“My Pastor almost cancelled my wedding in 2011 because one busy body brother told him I was pregnant (I don’t have a flat tummy). I had to embrace my uniqueness and love myself. My Pastor later found out that I got married as a Virgin.” – Dumebi
“I’m chubby but well endowed. I have been body shamed for as long as I can remember. It’s not too long I gained a lot of confidence and self love. Now, I strut my stuff like there’s no tomorrow. – Queency
“I posted a picture of myself, hubby and our daughter. Someone commented,”This your tummy is too big. Go and use forever products. I sell them. You are also fat! Please watch it!”
I was shocked!”- Moni
”Body shaming! I suffered it but I fought it hard by accepting my bowlegs and even abusing myself before you think of it… Today, a lot of people tell me they love my bowlegs and would love to have. I don’t pray for my daughter nor any of my children to have bowlegs, not because I can’t show them all the love, but the outside world is toxic and I don’t want my children to go through what I went through.” – Susan
”I saw an old classmate from high school, she told me I looked old and I told her thank you, that it was my intention. I have been body shamed over the years. People told me I was too young everywhere I go, so I was glad she told me I was old, even though someone else told me otherwise that same day.” – Blessing
”For many years growing up I was very skinny. Usually, the smallest in size wherever I found myself and I got so many horrible nicknames as a result – skinny, snake, spaghetti.”- Titi
”I was called short and thick in high school. I slapped the hell out of the boy’s face, and when my mum heard about it, we made it a joke at home and over time, I got very comfortable with my body size and height.” – Tabitha
*****
Body shaming is never a kind thing to do. Sometimes, we are guilty of this without knowing. We all need to grow up and stop saying things that will make others feel uncomfortable about themselves.
