I think any actions of cruelty come from objectifying others, any act of trying to make someone be or not be something is going to be cruel, but anything which physically assaults or hurts is obviously wrong.
But that requires a culture shift if the action has become ritualised and people are desensitised to the violence of it.
People tend to be 'culture-blind' so the actions of people in other cultures can be obviously noticed when they are wrong; however we do interfere with a child's natrally developing sexuality and body quite a bit in our own culture sometimes.
Spanking is one obvious area which blurs the culturally accepted norm with abuse and a sexually stimulating action. I have never felt comfortable hitting anyone but touching a child's bottom would feel inappropriate to me. Yet I know many parents who use this as a method of educating or controlling their children without ever thinking about other implications- indeed some would laugh at me no doubt, and one told me he prayed before paddling his son!
Poor body image comes from not loving oneself unconditionally and I think for people who visualise G_d that can be a good starting point: image G_d loving so unconditionally that it does not matter any of the insecurities or perceived imperfections of oneself.
Because we are constantly bombarded with unrealistic images of so-called body perfection we have become very unhealthy towards quite normal differences in body types and sizes, and punitive in our attitudes to self where we perceive we failed by not being like someone else!
It is largely political I think- drop the societal values which make me feel less than perfect, realise I am a child of G_d and unique and meant to honour and take care of myself.
I spent a lot of years waiting for someone to come back and parent me, it left me vulnerable to people who came into my life and picked up on that craving and offered me some level of care so that I would meet some of their their agenda; it made it impossible to manage my illness after a while, I wasn't doing what i needed to to stay well.
now I look after myself and treat myself with kindness and stick to healthy things and comfort. That felt weird for a while but now it's normal, and I don't have any body-image issues.
It doesn't matter that i am not some particular vision of perfect- no one is.
In the book on self-sabotage there's a lot about why we sabotage our weight and health to meet higher needs like protecting ourselves, using them to set boundaries etc.
~W
