SHAME

She ran into the room, banging the door, grabbed a vase and smashed it on the floor, she screamed at the top of her voice and punched the wall. Calming herself she stood in front of the mirror and looked at her reflection, she had a dusky complexion, tears were running down her chubby cheeks smudging the mascara, her hair was shaggy and unkempt. She stared at herself for more than a few seconds and suddenly started slapping herself hard on the cheeks, then spit on her reflection.

       THE LEECHES

Shaming is something which we are very familiar with, it happens on a daily basis. It might just be a casual joke on a colleague, or it might be a random comment on a family member. We are all either a victim or a perpetrator, stuck in this dreadful shaming culture.

Why has it so rooted in our society?

Why does it even happen?

What satisfaction does one get by shaming another?

Why don’t we realize that wounding comments on a person constantly affects their emotional, physical and mental health?

Why have we turned blind? Or have we just closed our eyes and pretending to be blind?

  Shaming has become the only tool for the weaklings to show their dominance upon the strong ones, all they want is to break the strongest into pieces and to make them vulnerable. These weaklings are like leeches, they suck out others happiness and feed on their insecurities. These leeches are out there everywhere, waiting to cling upon, sometimes they are all around us and we wouldn’t even recognize them until there is no more blood to be sucked out.

Imagine a person being commented on every single thing they did right from their childhood, imagine the level of confidence that person would have, imagine the mental state of that person. It makes them socially awkward, pumps their anxieties and curbs the will of that person. The dirtiest part is most of us don’t know the reason behind our behaviours because the leeches are subtle and they drain the blood slowly.  

THE SPECTRUM

The society we live in can be broadly classified into three types: Fear-controlled, guilt-controlled and shame-controlled societies. While major democratic societies are guilt or shame driven, autocratic societies are fear-driven. The democratic Asian countries are mostly shame controlled, where every little action is governed by the shame of a person.

Shame has been rooted in our society through the means of stereotypes. These stereotypes are designed in such a way that anything against the culture and tradition is considered a shameful act and a person indulged in such an act is shamed and criticized.

When a woman wears revealing clothes or if she is associated with many relationships, she is slut-shamed, when a person is chubby or skinny, they are considered to be contradicting the so-called perfect physique and they are body shamed. When a person has a dark complexion, they are not considered to be beautiful.  If a student has low academic performance, they are shamed. The choice of profession. The personal desires and interests. The rational ideologies. The way of life. Shame. Shame. Shame. It has become a shadow, which is constantly haunting us and will continue to rage until…

CONCLUSION: LET THERE BE FIRE  

She stood in front of the mirror and stared at herself for more than a few seconds and started slapping herself hard on the cheeks, then spit on her reflection…

He sipped some water, controlled his breaking voice, with streaming tears, he went on with his speech

‘…it will continue to rage upon us until there is fire. The leeches, the mere thought of shaming others, the stereotypes, the shadow of shame must be burnt to ashes, if not these antisocial elements will break our hope and peace, would drown  us with inferiorities, even with a heart full of talent we would hesitate to come out into the light' 

'My sister always wanted to be a writer and the last thing she wrote was her death note…’

She was lifelessly hanging from the ceiling fan, with a piece of paper clenched in her hand.

…and it said:  

S.H.A.M.E !!!