Where Appearance Judgments Come from

“Society can be judgmental!”. At work, school, university even when walking down the street we can feel other people's judgment. We live in a world where by looking at someone’s body type or the way they look we immediately jump to conclusions without even knowing the one’s personality and behavior. I personally experienced judgment through the years due to my height, body weight and the way that I look. These judgments can come from our social construction and the way that our society is divided to different classes which leads to people to see the world in different lenses.

“You are too short for this bro”, “should I call you a midget or a dwarf” these are just a few of many comments I get every day because of my physical appearance. People who are short are seen as weak and powerless that are incapable of playing sports. For example, I can relate to this through my experience back in high school when playing team based sports such as basketball and soccer with my peers in gym class I would always get picked last because of my short structure. Due to my short structure, people assume I am more vulnerable and defenseless compared to someone who is taller than me. For instance, back in high school people tent to pick a fight with me to impress others and show that they are powerful and tough. Also because of these prejudices and stereotypes that people have toward my short structure it changed my own perspective and made me to judge myself to think that maybe I am not as useful or capable as compare to someone who is taller than me. For example, I can relate to this through my experience when I went for job interview and saw that most of the people that came for the interview are much taller than me and because of these stereotypes that society planted in my brain about short people I lost my confident and thought to myself that I cannot get this job because of my shortness and this lead to me not expressing myself to the interviewer as much as I would have wanted to. Finally, due to my shortness I get so many negative comments from people and even my friends. For instance, one day I invited some of my friends to the family party that my mom was hosting and after my friends arrived to the party and saw my family especially my dad and uncles that are much taller than me, their first expression was why are you so short compare to your family and this made me feel like maybe I am a “loser” just because I am short. Overall, my height has changed the way that people look at me and has led me to be judged by people surrounding me. People who are overweight are judged in today’s society. Being obese or overweight nowadays is like committing crime and people are judges in the court. The way that our society is constructed people judge you base on how you look and they always expect you to maintain specific weight or “look” if not you can get judge. In society’s eyes people who are overweight lack will power and are desperate, also they assume that we are unhealthy and depress. For instance, the other day I was doing chest press in the gym and one random guy who I barely knew walked up to me and started to talk about that I should do more cardio based exercises since I am overweight and even he suggested some pills that help lose weight and battle with depression, this personal experience can support the idea that because of these stereotypes that we have in our society about people that are overweight can cause others to look down, feel sorry and even feel obligated to tell us what exercises we should do or what kind of food we should eat or not eat. Also, due to my overweight people assume that I not good at any sports or I cannot jump or run, without even knowing my background in sport activities. Lastly, my body weight has always an impact on people's perspective of me and has cause others to judge and criticize me.

Where do judgments come from you may ask. Through the history we constructed our society with these ideas and theories. These ideas that we gave meaning to changed our perspectives and lead us to make a paradigm for ourselves through which we shaped look and reflect about the world and people surround us. Therefore, in my view because of these ideas we tend to judge others and determine what is wrong or what is right. These ideas can come from our cultures, social interactions and etc. By having these ideologies that we made had caused us to set bars for how we should be for example nowadays the “ideal man or woman” should look like the movie stars in Hollywood and be in certain height or shape, and if someone is not at that certain categories we tend to judge based on their body shape and see them as “losers” or “unattractive”. To support this idea, we can look at my case where people make comments and judgments about my height and body shape without even knowing my personality and tell me what can or cannot do, how should I act and behave just because of my body shape. Overall, these social constructions that media, newspapers, movies and ourselves has created caused us to set bars for each other and judge one another if they do not reach our standards.

All human beings are made of bones and muscles and yet we tend to judge each other. Our society is made of different classes upper, middle and lower class. Each of these classes have their own unique income, wealth, social connection, occupation and education. Theses difference can change people’s way of thinking and create lots of different lenses which we see each other with. Due to having so many lenses, we let ourselves to think it is okay to judge each other because we each view life in these different lenses and we all have different view of life. For instance, to support this ideal we can go back to my case where I was working out to reach my “ideal” body and the guy told me that I should do other exercises to reach the “ideal body” in his view. In this example, we can clearly see that we both have different definition of the “ideal body” and because of this difference he allowed himself to judge me because our view of the “ideal body” is different. These different lenses caused by having social classes can also lead to one group believe that they are superior to other and eventually thinking it is “normal” to judge others. Overall in my opinion the social esterification in society can make different lenses and eventually cause judgment because we all see the world through different lenses and if someone’s body type is not the way that we think it should be we can allow ourselves to make judgments about them.

To conclude, every human being has their own value and worth and we should not let ourselves to judge someone because of their height, body weight and the way that they look. The society that we constructed with our ideas and beliefs has lead us to believe that we need to look and act in certain ways and if we do not we are irreverent and can be judged. The question of where judgments come from can have very different and broad answers which requires serious research and attention to eventually know where these judgments come from and how should we help to stop them.