Home should be a place where you feel comfortable and safe. In an ideal world, your family should be your number one supporters but they can often be your toughest critics. Unfortunately, many people have experienced harsh words from family members, especially concerning their appearance.
Those comments tend to be related to weight and it appears that women tend to be body-shamed more than male relatives.
A new study by OriGym shows family members are some of the most common sources of weight-based bullying, with women receiving the brunt of a family’s weight discrimination.
Whether it’s the body-image pressures of culture, religion, or earlier generations, family members are the cause of weight stigma for nearly a fifth of Brits.
4 in 10 plus-size Brits have been at the receiving end of a scathing comment or weight-related judgement. Those who are on more of the slimmer side also face critique, a quarter of those who classed themselves as ‘underweight’ had also been critiqued for their body shape and frame.
Unsurprisingly, half of those surveyed who have been ‘fat-shamed’ said it had ‘lasting effect’ on mental health. This impact on people’s mental health has also affected them physically.
In the study, 4 in 10 plus-size Brits said weight stigma had led them to ‘binge eat’, while almost 3 in 10 said it had ‘put them off adopting healthy habits completely’.
Sadly, 1 in 5 plus-size Brits admitted they had developed some kind of eating disorder after experiencing this weight discrimination.
Women are more likely to face these harsh words from family members than men. In a 2012 study of familial links in weight stereotypes and predictors of stereotypes among girls and their parents, it found that female respondents carried memories of being weight-shamed by their mothers which led to issues of self-confidence.
Other respondents felt that the cause of criticism was mothers’ projecting their own insecurities about societal expectations.