“Fat! So?: for people who don’t apologize for their size!” “I’m So F****** Beautiful!” “Size Queen: for Queen-Sized Queers and our Loyal Subjects!” “Fat Girl: a zine for fat dykes and the women who want them!” These names might not ring a bell for an average Indian woman who has been facing discrimination in all realms – social, cultural, intellectual, political, economic and legal. Add to this sickening list a seventh form of discrimination – size. “Fat feminists” across the globe have been campaigning for the “acceptance of women of all sizes” through the Zine Movement, the Riot Grrrl Movement and the Fat Liberation Movement, which led to the publication of the above-mentioned ‘fat feminist’ magazines. The Indian woman of the twenty-first century is confronting a new challenge that is not only anti-fat but also against the genetic make-up of her body – the budding fashion of fitting into smaller and smaller pieces of clothing. Despite the comparatively larger hips as well as corpulent breasts and thighs, the clothes sold for women in the showrooms are exclusively for either androids or skeletons.
A couple of years back, the advertisement hoardings of Lee skinny jeans that directly targeted the ‘unfortunate’ fat women through the derogatory caption – “Not for the Masses” – and an outrageous picture of a few oversized individuals staring enviously at ‘perfectly’ undersized individuals, created a huge furor among the feminists in India. Whether the company intended any form of pun by the use of the word – masses – is an irrelevant issue. From bell bottom to boot cut to flare cut to straight cut, the trends in fashion have been evolving every single second; and today, skinny jeans that are described by various other names such as tapered pants, carrot leg pants, ice-cream cone pants, old-school hood jeans and so on, have become the most sought-after type of jeans. Moreover, these branded jeans have concocted an appalling definition of the perfect shape of a body – “people with smaller hips and taller women.”
Are trends in fashion a reflection of the changing demands of the society? Or is fashion transforming the mindset of the public? With increasing obsession with size-zero and ‘breakthroughs’ with regard to techniques to look skinny regardless of one’s voluptuous size, fashion is increasingly encroaching on every woman’s comfort level. More and more fashion models are slowly growing vulnerable to anorexia nervosa due to extreme dieting. In 2006, a Brazilian model, Ana Carolina Reston died of complications of anorexia nervosa. Shortly after, the Uruguayan model, Luisel Ramos collapsed on a runway during Uruguay’s fashion week and later died from heart failure. Her medical reports suggested that her death was caused due to fasts for preparing for the show. Reports suggest that more number of severely underweight fashion models face the same danger, which is why countries are coming down heavily on their respective fashion industries. Those girls’ efforts to fit into the threadlike clothes proved fatal for them; time is not far away when Indian models will meet a similar fate.
During the second wave of feminism, feminists had led an agitation against the beauty pageants, fashion shows and cosmetics that essentially objectify women – turn them into objects of “the male gaze.” Laura Mulvey introduced this term in her essay, “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema,” published in 1975. The feminists asserted, “In their traditional exhibitionist role women are simultaneously looked at and displayed, with their appearance coded for strong visual and erotic impact so that they can be said to connote to-be-looked-at-ness.” They declared that this could only lead to victimization of women as the female figure is styled according to the fantasy projected on it by the male gaze. This syndrome continues to thrive in our society – on-screen and off-screen – one of the reasons why women are being coaxed into donning skinny attires and attract male attention.
This brings any individual to a very important question – does fashion in the twenty-first century overlook comfort? In fact, the rarity of “Large” and “Extra-large” in the market is drawing a lot of criticism as many women seek comfort over ‘style.’ On the other hand, according to Cotton Incorporated’s Lifestyle MonitorTM, “85% of women cite fit as the leading reason they dislike an item of clothing shortly after having purchased it. And nearly half of all female consumers report that they cannot find their size in clothes they like. When asked what they like most about their favorite brand of jeans, 69% of women said fit was the quality most important to them, followed by comfort at a distant 13%.” These figures are not completely reliable, yet they cannot be ruled out either. Therefore, the interest in fitting garments can be ‘choice-based’ for some women, ‘necessity’ for others and a ‘compulsion’ for the rest.
“Pick one hue. Dressing head-to-toe in a single dark color, like navy or black, is the single best way to look like you’ve lost 10 pounds.”
“Wear a sexy tee. V-neck and deep scoop-neck tees elongate the neck and make the torso appear longer by showing off your collarbone.”
“Pull out that A-line dress. A gently flared A-line cut is universally flattering and hides large hips.”
These are some of the valuable tips propagated by fashion experts to look slim and trim. Such desperate acts would shatter a woman’s identity, individuality and above all, her pride of being a ‘woman.’ The desire to be what one is not is deep-seated in the minds of the whole humanity. The psychological construct of the ‘ideal woman’ is closely connected to the ‘android clothing culture.’ The regrettable part of this saga is that ‘what is ideal and what is non-ideal’ are determined by fashion in every epoch. Any trend converts the women into commodities who are ‘forced’ to ‘embrace’ the trend for different reasons, compromising their physical and mental dignity.
*All the terms in single quotes are ambiguous and could be interpreted in multiple ways.
Picture Source: The Telegraph, UK
The Author Dhanasree Jayaram is a student of English Literature at Stella Maris College and is an aspiring journalist. Ironically, she enjoys non-fiction more than fiction. Though English Literature transcends fancy and imagination to delve into social and political issues as evident in essays, (auto)biographies, travel writing and so on, purists are still unconvinced about the role of non-fiction in the sphere of English Literature. Urvashi Butalia’s amazing account of partition – “The Other Side of Silence” was the first non-fiction work that changed her flawed perception of non-fiction. Besides reading, she loves politics and polemical writing pertaining to politics. Obsessed with Indian elections – Centre or State – she has an unrelenting fascination for psephology. She is a strong advocate of protection of environment and therefore, regards eco-feminism as a formidable force. She wishes to specialize in South Asian Affairs (including literature) and explore the conflict-ridden areas of South Asian countries. She devours sports (mainly soccer, cricket and tennis) and has an uncanny tendency to support the underdogs (even when India is one of the teams on the ground)! Music, especially Carnatic, Hindustani and Instrumental (violin) is very close to her soul! She likes reading “The Hindu” and “The New York Times” occasionally. She watches all movies except fantasies; She cannot digest fantasies including the ‘legendary’ Harry Potter!!
Well-written. We need to be comfortable in our own skins (and fat deposits!!) and teach our daughters the same self-respect.
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I don’t think that the pressure to be thin is as strong in indian society as in many other countries. It’s definitely there, and I have seen a few acquaintances turn anorexic, but I don’t think it’s the only pressure that women feel about their bodies. As far as I can tell, virtually every girl I know has some complaint or the other about her body. The commercially projected Barbie-doll figure – one that is biologically unattainable – leaves every woman with a complex. Too fat, too short, breasts too small, hair too frizzy, too hairy, hips too large, feet too broad, shoulders too wide, thighs too flabby, skin too dark… the list is endless. And how much of this kind of rubbish do we hear men worry about?
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Dhanasree Jayaram Reply:
August 25th, 2009 at
@ Nandini: Very true! My focus is purely on clothing – the large and the extra large and the kind of flak an average Indian woman faces while shopping in the twenty first century. I only intended to limit my focus so that I could give more attention to the increasing pressure to be thin and the current trend in fashion that suits only thin women. An attempt to explore all the other fads you have mentioned would take another 5000 words because they are just too obsessive and disgusting! It boils down to the menatality as well to a large extent. One cannot blame the society entirely….a lot of these fads are groomed by the society but individuals must be capable of taking a stand on them and not get swayed by them, which is why I put a lot of words in single quotes! I know lot of men who are more conscious about their appearences than women. Generalization would be a crime! Fashion is addictive to both genders…
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