By Aradhika Sekhon 

OVER the last 50 years, there have been dramatic changes in what is perceived as a ‘beautiful’ body. From a mild interest in maintaining a good physique a few decades back to a virtual obsession with "looking right"women in India have come a long way. Nowadays, the so-called "lollipop ladies" abound (thus termed because their body silhouettes resemble lollipops — sticks for bodies, topped with heads). To get that look, they are constantly under pressure to starve, to mutilate, and they hate themselves if they are "only normal women."

International influences on Indian women in matters of looks, fashion and lifestyle are a major reason for the shifting perception of what is beautiful. Photographs of reed-thin models in glossy magazines must also take the responsibility for the obsession with body image. Surprisingly, this ideally desirable body image has been promoted not by or for men but by other women. By and large, it is believed men like voluptuous women and women do understand that to be attractive to the opposite sex, it isn’t necessary to look starved. However, for their own self-esteem and confidence, the "perfect body" becomes important. In a perverse sort of a way, women’s self-image has liberated them from the bondage of wanting to look a certain way only for men. In fact, women have chosen a completely different look from what is traditionally considered desirably by men and, thus, have consciously made their own choice.

To see the drastic change in the "shape of things," one just needs consider the leading ladies of Bollywood. The 50s, 60s and 70s saw leading ladies whose main claim to beauty was not their bodies but their faces — emotive eyes, sharp noses, long hair and expressive voices. The immensely talented Meena Kumari, the lovely Madhubala, the statuesque Nargis, Nanda, Mala Sinha, Asha Parekh, and dancers like Madhumati, Bindu and Aruna Irani were well-endowed and comfortable with their bodies. The 70s saw ‘Zeenie baby’ and Parveen Babi with their spectacular bodies happily co-existing with a demure and rounded Moushmi Chatterjee or Hema Malini, the ‘dream girl’ of India. The 80s accepted and celebrated Sridevi and Jaya Prada. The pressure on glamour icons to look like Aishwarya Rai or Karisma is so immense that Raveena Tandon, a veteran in the glamour business now, worries about how tough life has become after the influx of models into movies. Things have come to such a pass that Liz Hurley says that she finds Marilyn Monroe, the ultimate pin-up girl, to be fat!

The increasing interchange-ability of looks where India unconditionally accepts the western silhouette is resulting in a universal look for Indian women. Girls now have role models who emphasise weight and shape without a thought for what is healthy, feminine and desirable. They go to dangerous lengths to acquire ’the look.’ In the UK, a British Medical Association report revealed that approximately one million people in the country were anorexic or bulimic, and 58 per cent girls found their appearance to be the greatest pre-occupation in their lives. As many as two-thirds found themselves feeling inadequate compared to media images of the ideal female. India, too, has cause to worry because anorexia and bulimia (eating disorders) that were hardly known a decade ago have now become household worries.

Thanks to skeletal stars like Alley McBeal (Calista Flockart), the body image can become a problem for thousands of women. Not just people suffering from eating disorders, but normal, everyday, healthy women suffer anxieties and self-disgust as they mull over their perceived inadequacies. Of course, when one looks at a reed-thin model, one can argue that she can’t possibly be considered the norm and the way she looks is pure fantasy unless one has a team of stylish, professional photographers, flattering lighting and computer enhancement at hand. But being the glamour junkies that most women are, the message that they receive from the media is that it is not attractive to have a stomach, thighs or hips of normal female proportions. In fact, thousands of women are spending a serious amount of time and money to surmount their "physical handicaps."

Mentally and emotionally, too, an unrealistic body image affects the quality of life. No one can dispute the confidence that the realisation of looking good can generate. However, when "looking good" reads "looking thin", body confidence can take quite a battering. This results in calorie-counting, over exercising and fretting about the body, not to mention the guilt that a cola or a samosa can generate. The truth, however, is that the super-waif look, beloved to the catwalk, is possible if a woman eats nothing but salad and exercises herself to exhaustion.

So the message that a multitude of women are receiving from the fashion industry and fashion media is that to be attractive and successful, a woman must look a certain way. Fat or even normal women aren’t worth bothering with. To break out of this masochistic bind that women have worked themselves into, it is essential that positive images of healthy, natural models are projected. Media should use images of women with whom the vast multitude can identify. Let females be happy with their curves or voluptuousness by allowing healthy women models all those lovely designer clothes which anyone would want to possess. Why must a woman be size 8 to be fashionable? She can be a good size 12-14-16 and still be bang up to the minute when it comes to her wardrobe.

Luckily in the India, there remains a ray of hope. Cable TV, which has brought us the reed-thin models and performers, has also brought forth "women of substance" who dare to be "wholesome." If one looks at the stars of the soaps on the small screen, one sees that many of these women are as normal as can be reasonably accepted of stars. Shefali Chaya, Neena Gupta, Divya Seth etc. act in serials which convincingly portray them as desirable women with several swains. Of course there are others like Achint Kaur as well, but a healthy mix beamed over the cable can only lead to a more acceptable and realistic body image among the women viewers.

There are also some Bollywood heroines even today who remain popular in spite of their rounded figures like Kajol, Rani Mukherjee, Preity Zinta, and Tabu. Women love them and if they stay around they may be able to engender more realistic standards of an acceptable body image.