Body Shame and The Other Lies We Live

We all lie. Those who claim that they don't lie are lying when they say so. Some people only tell small, relatively harmless lies, like saying they love a gift someone gave them, even though they really don't. Other people also tell big lies, the kind they use to hurt other people or to gain power, money or influence. Things generally believed by society can be a different kind of lie. Body shame is, for most people, the first big big lie that gets pounded into our heads. At about the age of 2, people begin to develop a sense of self and it is also about the time most parents begin teaching their children that their naked bodies are shameful, which is why we have to cover them up when we go into public starting around that age, if not before. It is important to note, however, that on the face of it, the notion that our bodies are bad or shameful is a harmful and toxic lie that has no objective truth to it. After all, regardless of whether a person believes in any higher power (body shame is heavily correlated with various religious ideologies), our bodies are the vessels that carry our consciousness through the world for our entire lives. How could it be possible for that vessel to be bad or wrong or shameful? If a person does believe in a higher power, how could it be possible to also believe the vessel created by that entity to be bad, wrong or shameful? The idea that our bodies are bad or shameful has no rational basis in fact or reality. It is a negative feeling based on irrational negativity. The toxic impact of the pervasiveness of body shaming in our society is all around us. The symptoms of it include an epidemic of eating disorders, a growing market in cosmetic surgeries and worse, including an increase in suicides. Body shame, which is at least partially rooted in slavery, is directly linked to sex shame, and causes people to attempt to suppress their sexuality. To understand how that works out, we only need to look at the sexual abuse in the Catholic Church. When we try to suppress our sexuality or feel ashamed of our bodies, the results are only bad... [url][link]/link/fb9635a6960f197f/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuY29ja2Nvemllcy5jb20vcG9zdC9ib2R5LXNoYW1lLWFuZC10aGUtb3RoZXItbGllcy13ZS1saXZl[/link]Continue reading here...[/url]