Why Do We Feel The Need To Body Shame Women Exercising Their Choice?

Social media has given fans and trolls easy access to celebrities. Features like “Ask Me Anything” give a chance to viewers to get to know celebrities better. But what should have been a harmless session of interaction with her fans, became problematic for actor Shruti Haasan. A follower tried to shame the actor by asking about her lip size.

The actor, who was last seen in the web series Bestseller, has had to face incidents of body shaming in the past as well.

Shruti Haasan Body-Shamed

The cyberbully asked, “What is your lip size?” Recognizing that the person is attempting to body shame her, the actor was quick to retort, “Will there also be lip size?”  Haasan who has a penchant for gothic fashion and does carry it well have been shamed for that as well. The actor was reportedly called a witch for wearing black lipstick.

Shruti, who is currently shooting for Salaar with Prabhas and Chiru 154 with Chiranjeevi, recently also spoke about how age-shaming has been rampant too and how it is problematic.  She said, “I think age shaming has always been a problem.” Haasan then added, “You can’t put a tough woman as you say so. Age is not in my universe. I think it shouldn’t exist in anyone’s universe. You do what you want to do on your timeline."

Props to Haasan for handling the trolls with such grace, however, this is another reminder of how we are as a society conditioned to subscribe to an ideal beauty standard that has been largely influenced lately by the Euro-centric features. If not, we are quick to pass judgements.

Suggested Reading: Are Unrealistic Fitness Goals Body-Shaming in Disguise?

It is necessary we mull over what compels us to body shame others. Why do we find joy in criticising and bringing others down? Will we ever stop nit-picking on women for exercising their choice in clothing? What gives us the entitlement to judge someone for their choices?

Rajesh Khanna-starrer retro Bollywood film Amar Prem had a song which went, “Kuchh to log kahenge; logon ka kaam hai kehnaa (People will always judge you, it is how things have been),” which seems very apt here. Though we need to question for how long will we let things be?

Time and again the discussions are broached about body shaming, the unrealistic ideals people—especially women—are forced to uphold and we rage over it. How will we ever stop it?

Intentional or unintentional body-shaming manifests through our judgements or comments about either ourselves or others. It often leads to comparison and perpetuates the idea that people should be judged for physical appearance. It has been normalised by society which is why we don’t deem it inappropriate when trolling someone even celebrities.

A research paper also established a positive correlation between materialism and body shaming. Women’s bodies, it stated, are viewed as capital and owning that capital would mean access to more opportunities.

At the core of these multiple reasons that perpetuate the body-shaming is one issue—objectification of women—which is a by-product of patriarchy. The root of most systematic issues that affect women and to an extent men all arise from the patriarchal thought system which disapproves of the idea of women as individual beings, them having an agency over their own bodies. The idea of giving women independence is scary because then it would become difficult for people to benefit from the unbalanced power dynamics that place men on a pedestal.

We have the capability and can fight this battle. One way is to recognise patterns of body-shaming behaviour within ourselves and try to deviate from that; we also need to be open about our experiences. It does not necessarily have to be in front of a large group, just a group you are comfortable with. Most importantly, we women will have to stand in solidarity with each other, lending unconditional support as we reclaim the agency of our own bodies.

The views expressed are the author's own