Women should feel no shame about their bodies while exercising

A recent Victorian study found more than 50% of women have been judged or shamed because of the way they looked while exercising. So much so, that the humiliation and judgement made some give up exercise.

Do women not have enough barriers to getting our daily activity in? Do women not feel enough shame when they’re overdue for a lip wax and a root colour? Yet now we have to worry about what we look like even while we’re pounding the pavement while being suffocated by lycra.

While the concept of body shaming may seem like a recent problem, our outspoken opinions of the appearance of others has been around for well over a century, with racist roots.

Let me explain. Well before the days of the JLo’s booty and Beyonce’s butt, a curvaceous figure was coveted as it was a sign of prosperity and the ability to breed. And this wasn’t only important in females; protruding stomachs were a sign of power and fertility in men. Essentially, it was a way of saying “I have more than you have” to potential competitors or threats, both literally and figurately. Conversely, thinness was a sign of poverty and potentially illness, such as during the Victorian era when Cholera and Tuberculosis were rampant.

Colourism also parallels this dichotomy. Colourism, a form of racism, supports the idea that pale skin indicates wealth and a life of indoor leisure, rather than the need for hard labour to support themselves.

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Summary: curvy hips and pale skin equated to being superior. Yes, superior as in “I’m better than you”.

So what changed? Although disputed, William Banting, an undertaker who struggled with health-debilitating obesity, is thought to have made the first dent in the diet industry with his published letter, a “Letter on Corpulence” which outlined how he lost 25% of his weight in a year on an Atkins-like diet and reversed his obesity-related symptoms. The demand for the paper was viral, and soon was a major catalyst for the change from fat-loving to fat shaming.

And so… the fat shaming continued. Postcards such as these, the historical version of memes, gained popularity while fat women (emphasis: women, not men) became the focus of pointing fingers. 

White men were even taught that overweight women, while popular in uncivilized countries (a-hem, black Africa), had no place in their pale-skinned righteous lands.

And so the recipe for fat shaming was created… with roots in racism.

This is one of the reasons why many of us equate a superior appearance with a superior life. And perhaps it’s for an unconscious reason: research has shown we’re hardwired to be attracted to, stimulated by and pleasured from beauty. 

After working in the field for several years now, I’ve come to a clear conclusion: the irony of body confidence and its evil counterpart body shame, has nothing to do with your body or its appearance. If it did, all supermodels would be confident, and they’re not. Furthermore, I personally wouldn’t have spent a majority of my life battling eating disorders, major depression and suicidal ideation even though I’m a size 6 AUS.

Therefore when we talk about body shame, we need to expand what we consider it means, to fully figure out how to battle it.

Firstly, body shaming of another person is simply unacceptable, and there is no one on earth that can debate me on that (or then can, but they’ll lose). And while I’m not suggesting an Orwellian world, we do need harsher punishments for those who shame others both in ‘real life’ and online as a preventive method. 

But what about the worse shamers of them all? Ourselves? Heck, our Self-flagellation starts before we even leave the house. We wake up and our first thought is “I hope I stick to my diet, I’m sick of being a fat, ugly pig”. Just starting a diet? Great – let’s make ourselves feel even more horrible with the click of shame ‘before photo’. Head out into the big, bad world and no wonder why things quickly landslide into anxiety and depression land with the addition of other people’s criticism. Heck, other people might not even be thinking anything, but we start misinterpreting glances as those of disgust, rather than just mindless viewing. Essentially, with a negative mindset, we will look for any and all evidence to prove to ourselves that we are right: we don’t belong, and we’re not good enough. 

So while I applaud and re-applaud the conversation around external body shaming, I think a more insidious type of shame needs to be addressed, our own self-shame. While it is something that takes time to improve, it is possible and should be a priority.