Is fit-shaming a real deal?

Recently, television actress Chhavi Mittal spoke up against body shaming. The actress, who is a fitness enthusiast, shared a video of her's, where a lot of her followers commented about how skinny she looked in her video. Instead of keeping quiet, the actress called out the user and expressed her disagreement. She said, "Calling someone "skinny" is as disrespectful as calling them fat."
Another television actress Aradhana Sharma who faced flak from her followers, because of how fit she looked.In a recent interview with us, she said, "People would say I look ‘Mardaana’.
Well, this is not the first time that women have been trolled, criticised or looked down upon because of being fit. In the past, public figures like Deepika Padukone, Gurbani Judge, have been criticised for being too skinny or too fit.
Fit-shaming is the term that defines this negative behaviour towards people who are fit. "Fit-shaming is similar to fat-shaming, the only difference is that in this, you target people who are fit or trying to be fit or at least taking baby steps towards fitness. Fit shaming is equally hurtful and traumatic," says therapist Rahul Malakar.
Experts say that this sort of criticism towards fit people comes from the deep-rooted insecurity that people have about their bodies. "People who feel unrelated to fitness are the ones who do this. There are approximately 79 per cent of people who do not think of getting into fitness, it's only 21 per cent of people who actually want to take up fitness or have a fitness routine. Fit-shaming is done by people who fall in the 79 per cent population. They want to have a good body but they want to put effort, so when they see someone else doing it and getting desired results, is what triggers this criticism," says psychologist Ekta Dixit.
Fitness experts have noticed that it's women who fit-shame other women. "Women in the fitness industry came much later than men. For the longest time, women were only restricted to household chores. But now times have changed, we have so many amazing and strong women who have come into the fitness industry and are doing extremely well. Today, we see so many women who are athletic and have commendable strength potential. We are witnessing so many female gyms and sport participation. The times have changed now and so is the community, but unfortunately, there are still people who haven't come out of their shells and all they can do is criticise," says Fitness trainer Snehal Chopra.
Female fitness experts say that this kind of negativity happens because fit women don't fit into the typical beauty standards that's been set in the Indian society. Siddhi Dhage, an athlete and a fitness trainer says, " Society expects too much from women, you have to be a certain way in order to be acceptable in the society or you will be judged. They don't understand that physical appearance doesn't define you, so you shouldn't judge them based on their body. Being healthy and fit is more important than looking good and or having a perfect figure," says Siddhi
While having a body or a certain lifestyle is completely a personal choice. Shaming any kind of body type is bad and people need to learn this because 2021. Shahzia Sheikh, who is a mother and a homemaker, put on a lot of weight post her second pregnancy, she was also diagnosed with thyroid. "I had to lose weight or else my thyroid would shoot up and I didn't want just to be home dealing with health issues, I wanted to be active for my kids, so I got into a strict diet and fitness routine. And during family get-togethers, when my relatives used to come over, they always had something to comment about how I looked, what I ate. "Itna kam khayegi toh bachhe ke liye doodh kaise banega, 'Ghaas phoos khake kuch nahi hone wala', 'Ghee kyun nahi khati, takkat kaise aayegi sharir mein,' but I felt more strong and healthy since I got on the diet. I feel more energetic after my workouts. So no matter how much you do, there will be people to criticise you. All you need to do is focus on the positive changes and keep doing it," says Shahzia.
People from the professional fields that require a good physique have been criticised too for their body. Tennis player Serena William was called manly because of her outwardly strong body. In fact the sportsperson took to social media and expressed her concern about the constant criticism. Priyanka Panda who used to be the captain of Maharashtra's basketball team says that her family and friends had always spoken negatively about her lean and athletic body, despite she being a sportsperson, who needs to be fit. "After I stopped playing professional basketball, I continued with my regular fitness. I have been taking out time to workout and would give myself targets to do better for my fitness as being healthy and fit is quite important to me. My colleagues or family would have a lot of questions that why would I do that as I am thin and why do I need to workout so much, you should focus more on work rather than giving time for playing as it’s not required at this time, you should gain weight cause and different types of questions at this age for a woman to face. Being a sportsman I learnt this art long time back was never hear the voice of the audience as we know us better and for what we are working for, our body type and the importance of being fit and healthy would just help one own self.My competition can’t be anybody else but it’s always been my previous version so I don’t take peoples' opinions seriously as it would keep changing and their expectation would keep changing," expresses Priyanka.
Brides are fit-shamed too!
Sunaina Sehgal, who got married two years back shared about her relatives who taunted her for being too skinny for her wedding dress. "I wanted to lose weight for the longest time but I never had a strong motivation and when I decided to get married. Both I and my husband started working out at the same time and we want to be a fit couple for our wedding. My husband was highly appreciated because he lost weight and he was nicely buffed, whereas I had to just listen to a lot of taunts from my aunts. At every event, they passed a lousy comment about how droopy my face looks or how skinny my arms look. I mean, why would you say something so nasty to a bride," says Sunaina.
Ways to handle fit-shaming
- Stand for what you believe in, which is possible only when you have healthy self esteem.
- You need to create small wins on a daily basis to build up your self esteem.
- Have friends who are aligned with the same goals.
-Create healthy boundaries with people who shame you. i.e spend less time with them, avoid deep conversations.
- Understand that people operate from their mental system, the approach or exposure they've had, so if they're shaming you for your fitness obsession its because they don't have a strong approach towards a healthy body.
- Also avoid fat shaming in response to beating their shaming. Let go.