Alia Bhatt, Kate Winslet and 12-year-old me facing utter mortification when the pimply boy in my class commented on my “muscular” legs—a stray remark that meant that for years I just couldn’t bring myself to wear dresses and shorts.
I was lucky because unlike so many women today, particularly women in the public eye, there was no social media to amplify gratuitous comments on your body. Unlike teenage girls bombarded with air-brushed and photoshopped images of “influencers” that set impossible goals on how they should look, how much they should weigh, what colour their skin ought to be, how big or small their breasts need to be, I had only to deal with one boy and his one thoughtless comment.
Last week, Alia Bhat shared a video of Kate Winslet on her Instagram. “I wasn’t even f****** fat,” Winslet tells podcaster, Josh Horowitz, about the body shaming she faced for being “too fat” in Titanic, a role she played at 19.
If she could turn back the clock, she continues, “I would have used my voice in a completely different way…don’t you dare treat me like this. I’m a young woman. My body is changing. I’m figuring it out. I’m deeply insecure. I’m terrified.”
It’s bullying and “borderline abusive”, Winslet added.
CREDIT: JOSH HOROWITZ
Winslet’s comments clearly resonated with new mom Alia Bhatt who shared it with 74 million followers on Instagram. “Word, please watch the full video,” she wrote.
In August, Bhatt’s husband, Ranbir Kapoor faced some heat for a joke about his wife’s baby bump. He later apologized to those who had been offended by it.
The evidence
Image source: Unsplash
Body image affects everyone, but women and in particular, younger women are disproportionately vulnerable to sexist ideas of beauty.
“Young women come to me with a photograph of Preity Zinta and ask for dimples because they want to look like her,” a Mumbai-based plastic surgeon told me. But older men and women also come to him in the belief that a slimmer body, shapelier butt or smoother skin is their ticket to a better career or a flailing relationship. “A lot of my work involves counselling,” he says.
At 9, ‘C’ who says she was “chubby” for as long as she can remember, was put on her first diet, by her mother. “I dreaded birthday parties and festivals,” she says. At 32, she remains “chubby”, having exhausted every diet from keto to intermittent fasting. “It’s hard to find clothes that fit but worse to be judged by your own family that somehow you’re overweight because you’re too lazy to do anything about it,” she says.
Three out of four children as young as 12 dislike their bodies; eight in 10 among young people aged 18 to 21, finds a new study from the UK that blames social media for representing a significant health risk to today’s young generation. These risks include excessive exercise, stopping to socialize and self-harm.
Closer home, a 2018 study of 1,200 college girls in Coimbatore found 77.6% dissatisfied with their body image leading to depression and eating disorders. In 2019 another study of 555 college girls in north India found that 27% had moderate to severe body concerns primarily arising out of high body mass index (BMI).
Not everything is to do with size. The obsession with skin colour that led to the success of Fair and Lovely cream (now literally whitewashed as Glow and Lovely) is an example of rampant colourism found in Asia and Africa that led the World Health Organisation to estimate that the skin whitening industry would reach a value of $31.2 billion by 2024.
Owning it
Launched in November 2019, the Fat. So? podcast by two proudly fat women, Ameya Nagarajan and Pallavi Nath is now in its third season. The women talk about how “being fat is lonely and isolating and not enough is said about the Indian experience about this,” says Pallavi.
The women discuss body image, social norms, food, love and sex, all the while working at self-love.
Fat women are constantly told they won’t get married, won’t find love or a job, won’t have friends. “It’s so f***** up that you start to believe it,” says Ameya. “Fat is just another adjective but it’s been demonized. It’s like you have no value in society if you don’t look a certain way.”
Behind the body shaming are doctors who sound the death knell for overweight people. And while there is a mountain of medical research linking weight with diseases like diabetes and heart disease it’s not as if thin people are excluded from them, points out Ameya. “Fat doesn’t mean unhealthy. You can be fat and fit.”
Feeding into this idea of the “norm” is the entertainment and media business that have stereotyped an assembly line body type that is virtually impossible for anyone to replicate. No one’s complaining, definitely not the constantly expanding consumer market that ranges from pilates classes, fad diets and dieticians to creams, unguents and potions.
Even a movie like Double XL misses an opportunity to change the narrative by casting Sonakshi Sinha and Humra Qureshi who look nothing like an XL, leave alone a double.
Onward and forward
Image source: AP
Stop the press! The iconic Barbie, seldom seen without its association with body image, is undergoing a transformation. Gone is the impossible hourglass figure and in its place is a “slightly softer bodied Barbie” with a larger waist that de-emphasizes the bust line, reports Associated Press.
The times they are a changin’—no matter how slow, or how little.
While social media is often painted as the villain in promoting negative body image, it also provides a platform for users to promote body positivity and challenge culturally defined beauty ideals; a “gateway drug to fat liberation”, says Ameya.
The challenge is to normalize bodies in all shapes and sizes, and the pushback has begun in India. From using plus-sized and dark-skinned models for ad campaigns to increasingly vocal advocates in the entertainment business like Vidya Balan and Humra Qureshi, there is the beginning of a slow shift in conversation.
“I wish 16-year-old me could have heard someone tell her, ‘your body is not ugly and you are not stupid’,” says Ameya. “But at least 16-year-olds now can hear us.”
Resources
- Body Image is an international peer-reviewed journal that publishes scientific articles on body image and human physical appearance.
- If you haven’t yet heard the fabulous Fat. So? podcast listen here.
- Looking for inspiration on Instagram? Check video creator @ishmitapuri, plus size fashion advisor @aparnasanyalwears, belly dancer @anjanabapat, and digital creators @sobia93 and @aashna_bhagwani.
- Ragen Chastain’s newsletter is US-focused but covers both weight science and weight stigma.
- Linda Bacon (who now goes by Lindo Bacon), Health at Every Size, available on Amazon, Rs 923 for paperback, Rs 779.10 for kindle.
- Splainer is putting together a crowd sourced list for the best plus-sized clothing. Click here to make your recommendation.
(Hat-tip to Ameya for helping put this resource list together.)
If you want to talk about body shaming, I’m here to listen. Write to me: namita.bhandare@gmail.com
IN NUMBERS
Same sex relationships have been decriminalised or are legal in 133 countries but same-sex marriage is legal only in 32.
India’s Supreme Court decriminalised homosexuality in 2018. The apex court has transferred to itself marriage equality petitions filed in various high courts.
Source: Our World in Data (via The Hindu)
GOING PLACES
I had written about Preet Chandi aka Polar Preet last year when she became the first woman of colour to complete a solo expedition to the South Pole. This year, the 33-year-old British army officer of Indian and Sikh lineage is back in Antarctica and is not stopping at the South Pole, which she reached on Day 57, but will push ahead with her plans to traverse across the continent, all 1,100 miles, alone and unsupported, hauling a sledge with her kit, including tent, food and supplies. The journey through icy winds and -50 degree Celsius, she hopes will take 75 days.
Track her journey in real time here.
Watch
Canada-based mom of three, Tina Singh took to Instagram to share her story of creating “Sikh helmets” that kids can wear over their turbans.
Watch how and why she did it here.
Stories you might have missed
The Orissa high court has ruled that consensual sex under the pretext of marriage does not amount to rape. Justice Sanjib Kumar Panigrahi said rape laws should not be used to regulate intimate relationships when a woman enters one by her own choice.
Scheduled to speak on Making Literature LGBTQ Neutral at the Bhopal lit fest on January 13, film-maker Onir tweeted that his event had been cancelled following threats of protest and violence. Another shameful blow to freedom of expression? “Police told the organisers that they cannot guarantee my safety,” he tweeted.
Chennai is the best city for women’s employment, finds a report by Avtar, a firm specialising in workplace inclusion. Pune, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Mumbai also rate high. The report ranked 111 cities on parameters nurturing a conducive ecosystem for women’s employment with a definite tilt towards cities in the south and west of India.
…And the good news
Image source: sportsunfold.com
A former scorer and software engineer, Vrinda Rathi and Janani Narayanan and Gayathri Venugopal, a player whose career was cut short by injury made their debut on Thursday as the first female trio to officiate in the Ranji Trophy, following the BCCI’s decision to draft women umpires on the men’s domestic circuit.
Venugopal is officiating in the match between Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh, Rathi between the Railways and Tripura and Narayanan at Goa versus Pondicherry.
AROUND THE WORLD
In Australia, Cricket Australia said it will boycott international matches against Afghanistan in response to the Taliban’s “unacceptable” treatment of women and girls. The two countries were scheduled to play three one-day internationals in the UAE in March. Afghanistan has called the decision “pathetic”, reports ESPN
In Colombia, respected environmental activist Francia Marquez who last year became the first Afro-Colombian to be elected vice president said there had been an attempt to kill her with a bomb planted near her home, reports The Independent.
Before I go, the inaugural U-19 Women’s World Cup began yesterday and will see 16 teams compete over 41 matches. Show them some love, and watch.
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| That’s it for this week. Do you have a tip or information on gender-related developments that you’d like to share? Write to me at: namita.bhandare@gmail.com. |