There still exists an obsession with having a perfect physique, causing many people to lack self-confidence and body confidence.Society's unrealistic body standards put enormous pressure on youngsters to have an ideal figure, lowering their self-esteem and thereby encouraging harmful behaviours.
In today's society, beauty is no longer determined by uniqueness, but by a number on the weighing scale or the size of one's waist. People want to be perceived as beautiful by conforming to these unattainable standards, which include a thigh gap, a fuller lip, a skinny waist and a flat stomach.
Well, let’s take a look at these Bollywood actresses who talked about these unrealistic beauty standards.
Sonam Kapoor
Actress Sonam Kapoor had shared a picture of herself with oodles of concealer on her face. She captioned the image “I’ve said it before, and I will keep saying it: It takes an army, a lot of money, and an incredible amount of time to make a female celebrity look the way she does when you see her. It isn’t realistic, and it isn’t anything to aspire to. Aspire to confidence. Aspire to feeling pretty and carefree and happy, without needing to look any specific way. And the next time you see a 13-year-old girl gazing wistfully at a blemish-free, shiny-haired Bollywood actress on a magazine cover, bust the myth of flawlessness for her. Tell her how beautiful she is. Praise her smile or her laugh or her mind or her gait. Don't let her grow up believing that she's flawed, or that there's anything she's lacking for looking different from a woman on a billboard. Don’t let her hold herself to a standard that’s too high, even for the women on the billboards.””
Vidya Balan
Vidya has previously talked about her struggles with body image issues in different interviews. In an interview with a media organisation, she said, “ "The length of your hair, the thickness of your arms, curves, height don't matter; what matters is who you are as a person. When you appreciate the person that you are, every imperfection looks small; but it doesn't strike you when you are loathing and hating yourself. It's a very precious and tough lesson that I have been through. I have realised, it is not people judging you but rather how you judge yourself. We all need to be cautious when we are bringing up children, the colour of the skin, weight, especially with girls."
Priyanka Chopra
Actress Priyanka Chora had shared that even she was affected by the ideal skin colour norm. She said, “Being ridiculously skinny was one, which kind of I didn't think about in my 20s at all because I had a crazy metabolism at that point, as you do. But more than that, the equity on lighter skin in Asia for sure, that was something I fell for.”
Huma Qureshi
Actress Huma Qureshi said, “The focus should be on developing personality and individuality, which is more important than having poker-straight hair or a size-24 waist. I have so many friends who are shamed for being skinny. Why can't we just let women and their bodies be?”
Taapsee Pannu
Actress Taapsee Pannu said, “I didn't have those big ‘doe eyes’; I didn't have an elegant, small nose...I had this large, ‘royal nose’, as people call it. I didn't have luscious lips or straight, silky hair—you know, the kind that actresses flipped around. I had curly hair, and I remember noticing that none of the actresses on television had hair that looked like mine.”
She further added "So yes, I did not fit the conventional parameters of beauty. And for many years, I tried to change myself, and failed miserably at it. Until finally I realised that I need to live with—and love—what I have today, I understand how beautiful it is when you truly love the way you are …"
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