Features

The Importance of Confidence and Positivity

Annika Johnson, Staff Reporter|January 20, 2017

Confidence and positivity are a few important attitudes to have.

Everyone has insecurities. It can range from someone’s weight, looks or personality. People get judged all the time for these insecurities, not only by their peers, but also by themselves. When does is it cross the line between bullying and body shaming?

People often think, “well, if I don’t say it to their face or around them, then I’m not really hurting them”. No matter what, its considered body shaming because they are putting someone down, or in some cases, putting themselves down.

It’s hard to change other people’s points of view but it’s harder to change your own. A lot of the time it’s simple things like gossiping about people, or sarcastically saying something bad about yourself. The best thing you can do is surround yourself with body positive people. People that are confident can make you feel more confident, or at least help you try.

There are three types of body shaming manifests, which include criticizing your own appearance, criticizing another person’s appearance in front of them and criticizing another person’s appearance without their knowledge. All of these manifests can easily be challenged, be confident about yourself and ignore the haters.

“Guys they brush it off, play it off like its nothing. Girls tend to take it to heart even though they can both struggle with their body images,” senior Bryce Ryan said. People don’t usually think of guys having body image problems when, in fact, they do. It’s just different than girls. Most guys want to be muscular and buff while girls look for either being skinny or being curvy.

Social media is the main source of body shaming. If it’s not people telling you how you should look, they are likely body shaming someone famous. In the past, women would compare their figures to those of models: tall and skinny. More recently, it has become a trend to be curvy and toned. Celebrities like Kim Kardashian, Amber Rose and Beyonce are all examples of women that the media talks about how to look. Even though all three of these women are against body shaming and are very pro body positivity.

“When I was in high school girls had such bad eating habits and would constantly try being skinny. I was most shocked that girls didn’t help each other out, instead bring them down,” Orono alumni Carlyn Johnson said, “If girls stood up for each other more, than we could resolve about half of the body shaming in the world.”

If we shut down what the media is telling us, then we can shut down body shaming all together. It’s not easy to get rid of something we can’t see or touch but it’s not impossible. Speak up for yourself or if someone else can’t say it stand up for them. Who cares if people judge you because you’re doing the right thing in the long run.