Wikipedia redirects searches for 'body-shaming' to the 'Anti-Fat bias' page; implying that only overweight or obese people are subject to body-shaming. This is not so. Even the thinnest, most perfectly proportioned (fashion magazines would have us believe very few quality for this epithet) among us and those lauded as stunningly beautiful come in for body shaming… for any number of reasons.
For many, Aishwarya Rai may be most beautiful woman in the world, but for others, carrying some extra baby weight was an unpardonable sin. Kareena Kapoor, once famously a size 0 was deemed unacceptable with a bit of extra pregnancy weight.
Clearly being talented is just not enough. Women have to fit a particular mold – literally – to be considered ‘beautiful’. Huma Qureshi thumbed her nose at such expectations. She famously appeared on the cover of Femina holding a skinny mannequin to show the haters exactly how little she thought of their expectations.
When she is not being slammed for her sartorial choices, she is being criticized for carrying ‘extra’ weight. She struggled with the insensitive barbs aimed her way and her attitude of indifference is hard-won. Now she just lets her redoubtable talent speak for herself… good for her.
…when she said this. She dismissed the acidic comments with some light humour; refusing to let hate getto her.
Women, usually celebrities are body shamed for other reasons also - for being “too thin”. Deepika was body shamed for her choice of clothing, for being too thin, for showing cleavage… apparently it never ends.
None of the fat-shamers could have had any kind of problem with the naturally lean Kriti Sanon. But haters will hate, as they say. Hate Story actress Bhairavi Goswami had a problem with Kriti Sanon having “no headlight, no bumper” a strangely misogynistic comment about a woman having (in her opinion) inadequate curves. Many came to Kriti’s defence; one Twitter wit going so far as to ask Goswami, “Wo Sab choro. Tum kon ho behn?”
Women are shamed for having a certain skin colour. People body shame women for carrying too much as well as too little weight; wearing too little or too much, or wearing the wrong thing… on the red carpet and elsewhere. Tannishtha Chatterjee is too dark, Radhika Apte was shamed for her ‘bold’ scenes in Parched… Clearly it is impossible to please everyone; some critic will always pour their vitriol.
She felt the need to transform herself into this lean, chiseled, ripped and reduced version of her former self; then she was seen advising a friend to lose weight on Twitter. Clearly, body shaming works in strange and twisted ways.
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