India as a country is still far behind when it comes to accepting people with big bodies. It is particularly difficult for women because the body shaming gets harsher when coupled with sexism.
Karishma Chavan, Tanvi Geetha Ravishankar
We are three months into 2021 and many have already started to lose grip on their new year’s resolution. That’s probably because, in order to achieve the resolution, more often than not we tend to choose a path that leads to the feeling of inadequacy. From this feeling of inadequacy arises the need to shame others and ourselves. What if we made resolutions that made us kinder and more accepting of ourselves and others?
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We are living in an era of resistance and inclusivity is an integral part of any movement that leads to a social change. However, India as a country is still far behind when it comes to accepting people with big bodies. It is particularly difficult for women because the body shaming gets harsher when coupled with sexism.
The third wave of the body positivity movement started in 2012 and social media has played a crucial role in giving exposure to people with different shapes and sizes. But it has also bred a collective of “woke” individuals who in a bid to appear inclusive try to internalize their regression. In this process, they say some of the most problematic things which only establish the fact that we as a country are not even remotely close to being inclusive. Not to mention; representation of plus size women is still almost zero in Television and Cinema. And we are still extremely obsessed with toxic beauty standards meant to create hegemony.
On the occasion of International Women’s Day, two of the most outspoken and celebrated plus size women of the country talked to mid-day online about how we are still trailing behind and what needs to change.
Bollywood choreographer and judge of Dance Plus Season 5, Karishma Chavan, has been very vocal about her struggles to be accepted in the industry. While a lot has changed from her initial days as a dancer, much more needs to be done to make people more accepting of different body types, she says. She also says, “it is important that women be kinder to their own bodies and stand up for themselves. Becoming a person of your own is an individualistic process.”
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She adds, “It is difficult and the transition will not occur overnight but the process of understanding that our external does not define our entire personality, is worth going through.”
Talking about her own experiences she reveals that she has been called names by famous dancers and choreographers but she has been fiercely calling them out from the very beginning. She has been typecast and offered stereotypical roles. Not just that, she was labeled unfit and many offered her unsolicited advice. However, she made it a point wake up every morning and condition herself to like her body. Eventually, she says, the days you feel confident about yourself will overpower the days of insecurities.
Ace Instagram blogger and a trailblazer of the body positivity movement in India, Tanvi Geetha Ravishakar (@thechubbytwirler) also discusses the importance of a conducive environment for a plus size woman to feel safe in her own body. She says, “even though we live in a progressive time, nothing much has changed in the professional front.” She adds that she has been “subjected to vicious trolling as soon as my content started going viral. There is another group of people who haven’t changed but have gone quiet because I am so vocal about the cause.” She also points out that oversexualising plus size woman in order to come across as progressive also proves the fact that we are getting it all wrong.
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Fashion brands and award shows only promote the idea of inclusivity but end of doing tokenism and mere lip service, says Tanvi. While she is a vocal advocate of fat acceptance and body positivity she says, influencers, celebrities who claim to be the change-makers aren’t fully aware of the nuances of this movement and end up saying things that push toxic beauty standards and pressure women in eventually fitting in the stereotypical box of beauty.
She is a firm believer of the fact that change will happen through social media, TV and cinema and therefore, representatives of these mediums have to be aggressively vocal about the cause. However, we are far from the goal, she adds.
As someone who believes in a holistic change and a collective approach to addressing the issue of body shaming, Tanvi says it is time that influencers start reading up and understanding the minute details of the body positivity movement and not commodify it. She says, a change in Indian Cinema or TV might not occur through this generation but social media has the power to make this movement reach its destination and that can only happen through knowledge.
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