Bigg Boss winner and Naagin star Tejasswi Prakash opened up to iDiva about her experience with body shaming. Shattering the illusion that celebrities don’t experience body image-related insecurities or pressure to look a certain way, Tejasswi said a lot about the way her looks were scrutinised: “I used to be extremely skinny in school, like people used to call me a hanger.”
You can see the full video here:
Video credit: Instagram.com/idivaofficial
Tejasswi talked about being skinny shamed
Image credit: iDiva
Tejasswi talked about how she was body shamed at a young and impressionable age: “In school I was extra skinny. So a lot of people, when we used to be on the ground playing and if it was windy, people used to be like, ‘Hey, paanch rupaye ka coin apne pocket mein daal varna udd jayegi (Hey, put a five rupee coin in your pocket or you’ll fly away).’”
“Listen, your body is ever-changing, especially if you’re a woman… There are so many times that we have our hormonal imbalances. So, if you’re skinny once, you never know, it’s not going to stay forever. I don’t think you should be bothered. I feel like if you’re skinny shamed, you shouldn’t be affected because that’s you,” she added.
The fact that Tejasswi opened up about this is important because the masses following her will now know that they are not alone when body shamed. Moreover, those with a tendency to body shame will perhaps learn to check themselves now!
Tejasswi’s advice for those being body shamed
Image credit: Instagram.com/tejasswiprakash
Tejasswi talked about why people should stop body shaming others and how to combat it.
She said, “Always be extremely comfortable breathing in your skin. I think every individual looks different, and actually everything about another person’s body should be normal. Like, I’m not going to point out at a certain thing like ‘Hey being chubby should be normalised,’ or ‘Hey being skinny should be normalised.’ No, like everything should be normal. It’s another human for God’s sake. Just accept and normalise absolutely everything about that person’s body.”
Skinny-shaming might be different from fat-shaming, but it still needs to end
Image credit: Instagram.com/tejasswiprakash
While fat shaming might be more of a systemic problem that actually affects multiple aspects of a person’s life—from the clothing options available to them, to the way doctors treat them—skinny-shaming is also bad.
At the end of the day, both fat-shaming and skinny shaming are shallow ways to pass judgement on a person and make them feel bad about things they cannot change about themselves.
What is an acceptable size to body shamers?
Image credit: Instagram.com/tejasswiprakash
Given how people of all shapes and sizes are body shamed, especially women, one has to wonder what, according to body shamers, is a body shape or size that is acceptable enough to not earn their ire? We have a feeling such a body doesn’t exist.
At the end of the day, body shaming is bullying and not about health concerns. It does not come from a place of concern, because if it did, it wouldn’t involve shaming someone and attacking their sense of self.
Lead image credit: iDiva, Instagram.com/tejasswiprakash
