BODY-SHAMED BY THESE TEENAGERS IN SAN JUAN, LA UNION
After all these years and countless trips back to Elyu, I never thought my first experience of being openly body-shamed would come from a group of teenagers sitting at the table next to ours.
They looked around 14–15 y/o (couples - BF/GF & GF/GF) fit and tanned. Whenever I stood up, they would look at my body, laugh among themselves, and make gestures toward my arms and upper body. One of them even mimicked a “masculine” build, clearly making a joke out of my appearance.
I noticed. I understood exactly what they were doing.
What I find unfortunate is that they are old enough to know that openly laughing at someone’s body is not confidence, humor, or maturity. It is simply unkind.
You can be young, fit, attractive, or confident and still lack something far more important: basic respect for other people.
I could easily comment on their appearance in return, but I won’t. Not because I have nothing to say, but because I was raised to understand that someone else’s flaws do not give me permission to be cruel.
To those teens: you may eventually forget this moment, but I hope you remember this, being able to make someone feel small does not make you bigger.
Tourists, please be careful with this people. I believe that if they can do this to me, they can do the same to other tourists.
I found the IG account of one of them. Since I believe medyo well-known ata sila doon, “B.S” yung initials ng IG handle niya. I could easily just drop it here, pero hindi ko na gagawin un sige, for their sake.