Vidya Balan is winning many hearts for muting a mediaperson trying to body shame her by talking about her weight during promotions of her latest film, Tumhari Sulu. Not the only celebrity who has had to fend off attempts at body shaming, Vidya has struck a chord with many women all across India.
Aishwarya Rai, singers Kelly Clarkson and Lady Gaga, model Ashley Graham, actor Anne Hathaway, and tennis star Serena Willams are among the many, many celebrities who have had to face a barrage of adverse remarks about their bodies. Closer home, actor Parvathy chooses to play down questions about her weight gain or loss by talking about her work while Saranya Mohan’s post on her weight gain went viral.
Body shaming is a world wide phenomenon and gradually women at the receiving end, not just celebrities, are reacting and discussing how to tell people, politely of course, to back off.
Anjana Gopinath, associate manager, corporate communications at IBS, revels in her curves. “Horizontally prosperous” is how she likes to describe herself. “I have never felt ashamed of my body and have never been diffident because of it. In school I used to be called ‘Anj ‘aana’ —with an extra ‘a’ thanks to my extra proportions! But I was never bothered by all those taunts. I was athletic and used to play a lot of badminton and had no health issues. Now, at 42, after a couple of problematic pregnancies, I now am well on way to scoring a century,” she says.
Women working in the glamour industry and cinema and television are under the constant glare of the public eye. Is the scrutiny daunting?
“I love myself! This is my beauty....” That is Praseetha Menon’s reply to all those who comment about her being on the heavier side. “I like the way I am. No one else ought to be worried about that. I am not interfering in their lives, am I?” asks Praseetha, one of the first women mimicry artistes in Kerala.
Parvathy Nair, senior programming head of Red FM, feels that it is best to avoid personal marks of any kind if you are not close to that person. “It is wrong to pass remarks on the physical appearances of a person, man or woman, if you are not a family member or a friend. But in our society, even complete strangers have no qualms about remarking on your weight or looks. I find that weird but now have learnt to handle such people. I tell them that I love food, love to eat and want to eat,” she says.
Carnatic musician and playback singer Renuka Arun says that many Malayalis are still not aware of body shaming and she gets really irritated when remarks are made about her weight or about any woman for that matter. “I am used to hearing remarks about my weight. I just don’t care. After my concerts, people often come up to have a word with me and as an aside they would say, ‘It’s better if you can reduce your weight’. As long as my singing is not affected by my weight, what is their problem?” she says.
What irritates her the most is random people making remarks about her. While she has learnt to ignore them, she talks about her friends who were deeply affected by such bullying and have grown up with an inferiority complex. “There are a lot of things to be achieved in this life and weight loss is not on my list,” she adds.
Youngster Charu Hariharan learnt that after she went abroad to perform with a group of folk musicians in Sweden. She was elated to find that people accepted her as she was and there were no barbs about her physique or advice to lose a few kg. “Till then I was a little diffident about my weight and always wore clothes to hide various parts of my body that I thought looked chubby. But my trips abroad have helped me become comfortable in my skin. It was exhilarating to wear what I wanted to without having to fear ‘what people might say,’” she laughs.
In the case of married women, spouses play a big role in helping women brush off attempts at body shaming. “Being married to somebody who has never called me fat or made me feel ugly because I am horizontally prosperous, I have become all the more confident about my body. Of course, being obese at this age has had an effect on my health and I have more than my share of joint pains and ligament tears. I know and understand that all those need to be addressed. Yet there are some people who just need to comment that I have become ‘fatter’— that my neck is too jowly for their liking and even that they thought I was pregnant! My standard reply to the body shamers is that they should broaden their minds. After all, I worked hard to eat and make my body the way it is!” says Anjana.
Actor Saranya Mohan thanks her husband, Aravind Krishnan, for hitting out against trollers body shaming her for putting on weight after she posted a picture on Facebook after her delivery. “Why can’t these people, even if a minority, understand that a woman’s body changes so much after delivery? I had a C-section and had to take extra care after that. In fact I started thinking about my physique only after our son turned one,” she says.
Talent ought to be the priority and not looks. “Don’t judge me by my looks, I often say that life is too short to be worried about such things. It’s high time people change their perspective,” Praseetha says.
Charu adds that it is time people change their mind set and accept people as they are. “My attitude changed after I interacted with people who have better things to talk about other than physical attributes. But one has to be careful. When I came back to India, I found that many of us tend to put on spectacles of prejudice. That has to change. Our views on such matters must change.”
All inclusive
Lakme Fashion Week introduced plus-size fashion shows and all the models were auditioned through a social media campaign. The brand aLL, in association with Wendell Rodricks, presented aLL Primero for plus sized men and women.