California Bill to Ban Body Shaming May Advance in State Senate

The California state capitol building in Sacramento, Calif., on March 11, 2023. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

A California bill that would ban body shaming in state schools may advance after a hearing April 26 by the Assembly’s Education Committee.

Assembly Bill 10—which defines body shaming as “the action or practice of mocking or stigmatizing a person by making critical comments or observations about the shape, size, or appearance of the person’s body”—would require school districts to develop and adopt policies addressing such by the 2025–26 school year.

It was the first piece of legislation introduced by Assemblymember Josh Lowenthal (D-Long Beach) after he was sworn into office Dec. 6.

While districts must have policies about how to address bullying, they are not currently required to have resources to address body shaming, “which is not always characterized by bullying,” Lowenthal said in an analysis of the bill.

Lowenthal said the bill, if passed, would educate teachers and faculty about body shaming, so they are equipped to address this issue with students and parents.

Body shaming can lead to negative impacts on a child’s mental health—which can cause them to withdraw from friends, activities, and participating in school, Lowenthal said.

The California Teachers’ Association which supports the bill agreed, writing in a statement that it “believes self-esteem is a major factor in the educational success of all students and staff.”

“The increasing mental, emotional, and environmental pressures upon the students and staff in California often result in increased drug and alcohol abuse, violence, dropout rate, pregnancy and suicide among students,” the association stated. “Body shaming adversely impacts student’s self-esteem. Research shows that students with low self-esteem are less likely to take academic risks, which adversely impacts their educational growth.”

Adolescents who are clinically identified as obese have a 40 percent higher relative risk of depression because such adolescents are often socially stigmatized by their peers, leading to bullying and rejection, according to a 2018 report published by the International Journal of Environment Research and Public Health.

Additionally, another 2010 report published in the Journal of Adolescent Health found that body dissatisfaction early in life can lead to eating disorders and psychological distress later in life.

Lowenthal said that as a father of daughters, he understood the difficulties young people face when it comes to body image.

“I’m a girl dad and I see how hard it is to be a young person today,” he wrote on Twitter Dec. 6. “That’s why for my first bill, I introduced [Assembly Bill 10] to help end body shaming and promote positive body image.”