Viral body shaming of young women guised as a call for saftey.

Let’s talk about viral body shaming of women guised as a call for saftey.

I see this all of the time on social media – especially with the new “Us Vs Them” trend of Millenials vs Gen Z.

We see it all the time, photos of two 13-15 year old young women side by side. One with a developed body that’s nearly completed puberty and one who has yet to begin her puberty journey. Both wearing perfectly appropriate clothing for their age – but because one of the girls has developed breasts she is now judged and shamed for dressing like a “slut”….even if you don’t say it – we can all see the judgement on your eyes when you look at our bodies – girls or women – if you are thinking it – we know it.

Example of the type of viral post described

“Being bullied in adolescence is linked to mental health problems like anxiety, depressive- and somatic symptoms and can have negative consequences on both an individual and a societal level.” – BMC Psychology

What I see when I see this type of viral post is gross, judgmental, biased af and women and men are EQUALLY to blame. My friends who developed breasts before me were brutally teased for being promiscuous just because they went through puberty sooner than their classmates – no change in behavior from before development – but the development itself leads to stigmatization.

We blame everyone except the men who violate women’s autonomy for who is to blame for the victimization of girls and women – this is NOT a female problem. This is a problem with how boys and men are raised to view and respect the female form.

For this point to be made the graphic needed two young women with the SAME body type or else it is 100% bodyshaming the more developed teen.

According to an article in Reuters, “The researchers examined data on puberty timing and any experiences with bullying among 227,443 teen girls in 35 countries. Slightly more than 4 percent of the girls started menstruating early, defined in the study as before age 11.

young woman with hot water bottle healing stomach pain

Early menstruation was associated with 21 percent higher odds that girls would be occasional victims of bullying and a 35 percent greater chance of frequent victimization…By the end of the study, roughly 31 percent of girls who started menstruation early were either victims or perpetrators of occasional bullying, compared with about 26 percent of girls who started menstruating at age 12 or later.

The trend was similar with frequent bullying. In the last survey wave, about 11 percent of girls who started menstruating early were regularly victims of bullying and more than 9 percent were often bullies, compared with about 8 percent and 7 percent, respectively, of girls who began menstruating later.” – Rueters; Journal of Adolescent Health

The size of a female’s breasts is not sign of their sexual proclivity – nor do they make it their fault if a predator has no boundaries.

This same sentiment is true for not only teenagers but for all women with curves vs slender women as well – two women could be wearing the exact same outfit, but because one woman is thicker and more bustier – it is all of a sudden inappropriate to wear and she has to wrap her body in shame and fabric to please a highly outdated societal standard for simple respect.