Conference Program

Body shaming is a widespread but methodologically elusive phenomenon that challenges traditional quantitative measurement strategies. In scientific literature, it is often studied using tools that focus on isolated aspects of the experience—such as specific physical characteristics, individual traits, or contexts—without integrating them into a coherent framework. This fragmentation risks obscuring the complex nature of body shaming, limiting the interpretability and comparability of empirical results.

This study introduces a measurement tool to study body shaming while preserving its relational, contextual, and intersectional complexity. The study assumes that body shaming cannot be adequately understood if treated as a unitary or homogeneous event. Rather, body shaming is conceptualized as an experience produced by the intersection of multiple dimensions, including gender, age, social positioning, relational configurations, and life contexts. In this framework, intersectionality is not addressed as a descriptive variable added a posteriori, but as a methodological principle that guides both the construction of the instrument and the organization of the data. Overall, the study proposes a measurement model that conceptualizes body shaming not as a single variable, but as a layered relational phenomenon that manifests through systematic communicative strategies of devaluation at the lexical level, with implications for self-perception, self-esteem, and interpersonal relationships.

To operationalize this perspective, the study developed a questionnaire with a key methodological feature: the analytical separation of dimensions that are often conflated in existing research. The instrument distinguishes between the relational level – defined as the nature of the relationship between victim and aggressor (e.g., strangers, friends, family members) –and the relational context, understood as the interactional configuration in which body shaming occurs (e.g., group settings, one-to-one interactions). Treating these dimensions as analytically independent preserves the complexity of lived experiences and supports a multilevel analysis of the phenomenon, while avoiding hybrid or ambiguous categories.

Additional sections of the questionnaire allow these dimensions to be systematically cross-referenced with gender, age, and life contexts, making it possible to identify patterns of differentiated exposure that would remain invisible with one-dimensional measurement approaches. The tool also includes open-ended options that allow unexpected categories to emerge, thus increasing its sensitivity to lived experience beyond predefined sets of responses.

The questionnaire was administered online via Google Forms to a sample of 1,014 participants. A branching logic was implemented to distinguish between respondents who had directly experienced body shaming and those who had only witnessed it. This design choice reduces the burden on respondents and improves data quality by avoiding the administration of irrelevant items. Empirical results indicate that body shaming occurs predominantly within weak or impersonal relationships, but a significant proportion of episodes also occur within meaningful relational spheres, particularly among friends and family members. Group contexts emerge as the most frequent interactional context, amplifying the role of public and performative dynamics. Furthermore, data on non-cisgender participants reveal high exposure across multiple levels and relational contexts, highlighting an intersectional vulnerability linked to the interaction between gender identity and dominant body norms.