Body-shaming is not a new phenomenon, though it is a pretty hateful one. It is often directed at women (sometimes by men, sometimes by other women) who do not conform to society’s expectations of beauty and image. Women are often told how they should be, with ridiculous demands around size. These expectations make no consideration of reality, and the people who body-shame are no more than bullies.

It isn’t just women who face this problem. Whilst I dare say women have it worse when it comes to body-shaming and pressure to look good, it affects men as well. Naturally, most men’s rights activists and MGTOWs have no interest in actually addressing the hows and whys of this, and prefer to bash feminism for not tackling the problem of male body-shaming, but this meerkat knows their anger is misplaced. Let’s get real.

To get and maintain a Chris Hemsworth-esque body requires a lot of work, and also a fair degree of cost. The diet along – Hemsworth consumes 4,500 calories per day – would bankrupt me. Gym membership may not be hugely expensive, but add it to the various other bills, and it all starts to mount up. To achieve the body of an Adonis is a time-consuming, costly affair, and this all raises a question: why should one have to?

If you are comfortable in your own skin, don’t let others make you feel uncomfortable, and if you are someone who exerts demands of others to look a certain way, pause and reflect upon whether your attitude is as helpful as you believe it to be. You may well be setting off a deep anxiety in someone, rendering them self-conscious about their looks, which can be a problem for men and women of all ages, across all walks of life. It’s well-past time that we stopped shaming others for not looking how we want them to.