Essay About Judging People (Impact on Mental Health)

People shouldn’t get judged by society for what they wear and look like. 

People shouldn't be judged by what they wear, for all you know they could have something going on like money issues or just a different style to you. In schools, we get told to express ourselves but then we get restricted in what to wear right down to the colour of pieces of fabric in our hair and in not letting us express ourselves you are turning us into robots and making us all the same whilst telling us to stand out and by pulling us in these different and confusing directions it is extremely affecting our mental health. The other day, I saw a video of a boy asking his dad for a dress I thought nothing wrong of it and clicked the comments as I was scrolling, I was seeing this boy, not even 8 years of age getting judged and called names for being slightly different to societies standards. Can't you understand the effects that judging can have on people like my friends, members of the community and people you don't know? This will focus on it not being right to judge, what you don’t see and the effects on mental health that it can have. 

People judge others all the time whether it be a large judgement or small. Judging others is an instinct, and we are all a little judgmental at times. We want to surround ourselves with people who we can trust because it makes us feel safe and secure. Harvard Business School professor Amy Cuddy has been studying first impressions alongside fellow psychologists Susan Fiske and Peter Glick for more than 15 years and has discovered patterns in these actions.

They say people quickly answer two questions when they first meet you: Can I trust this person? Can I respect this person?

They say, “it is more crucial to our survival to know whether a person deserves our respect.”

this quote is to show that we judge so harshly by our ideas of perfect. As an example, let’s assume you’re on a family vacation, and you’re at the airport waiting for your flight. Then, you can’t help but notice that the toddler has food on her shirt, and clothes that are a bit too small. 

See how easy it is to judge someone else? Yet, you jumped to conclusions based on only what you saw in a few minutes together in an airport. Judging others is so effortless that most people don’t even realize they do it.

Social media has a massive toll on how we judge people. I use many platforms daily and the judgment online is crueller than anything you will witness in the street. Whether it’s a girl who has been called ‘perfect’ being told to ‘eat a burger’ ‘you’re too skinny' or judgement when she wears something, she’s comfy in or if it’s a boy shirtless being told he’s ‘gross’. 75% of teenagers have social media and 51% have reported using it at least once a day every day and that’s a lot of people. The introduction has a short description of a time I saw a young boy in a dress online. There were around 170K comments and as the majority were good there was some judging. ‘Boys don’t wear dresses’ ‘HE is not a GIRL’ just to name some. Why did people judge him? What told us that we can’t wear certain clothes? This will most probably hurt him as he’s just being himself. I have witnessed this judgment in the flesh as me and my friends walk through town. Some of us have different styles to each other but the way they dress means nothing of the person they are. In societies eye wearing black especially as a teenager means you’re going to cause trouble but if you had stopped to look closer you would realise that most of us wouldn’t hurt a fly!

Mental health is a subject a lot of people tend to avoid. Whether it’s avoided for the terrifying words that come along with it or because people think it’s a bunch of nonsense. It needs to be said that judging someone you don’t know and showing it can be wreckage for them, you might as well punch them in the face. Think of someone you’ve seen in the street maybe not wearing clean clothes or even pyjamas. The majority of people will judge them as lazy or unmotivated and maybe avoid them or give a judging look. But little do you know that person can’t afford other clothes or maybe they don’t have access to anything to wash them. In some cases, yes, they might be lazy but it’s never safe to assume so. Now think of someone with a lot of tattoos, leather clothes and black jackets. Most grown-ups I know would cross the street or be cautious, hold tighter onto their belongings. These actions as well as people try to hide them are obvious and doing them to the wrong person can be damaging. It makes people especially younger ones self-conscious in their style. Maybe they will never wear that skirt again after being looked up and down all day. Maybe they walked with confidence out the house but were up till 3 AM wondering why that person crossed the street after seeing them. An objectivity survey revealed that 75% of class or workshop participants responded that they misjudged someone at least once a month or more. Scientific studies of first impressions have determined that people don't just judge you quickly. They judge you, literally, in the blink of the eye, 0.01 seconds to be exact. Did you know that? One-tenth of a second is how long it takes to judge someone not even a minute. What an accepting society right? Judging people for the clothes they wear, wearing clothes that aren’t supposed to go with whatever ‘gender’ you are when that’s just a social construct. Confusing but it's unfortunately true. 

In conclusion, we shouldn't be judged on what we look like. 94% of teenagers are self-conscious and judging them for what they wear adds to that. Imagine how amazing the world would be if we could change the fact that we judge as fast as we can blink “One has a right to judge a man by the effect he has over his friends.” a quote by Oscar Wilde meaning not to judge by looks but how they act this is important as it tells that looks do not matter but attitude and respect does. We as a society need to work together to stop judging and picking faults out of people and start to appreciate the beauty in them. To end this essay all I have to say is to try to stop judging others for what you see on the outside and consider what they are on the inside.