Bollywood actress Sonakshi Sinha has opened up about people’s negative attitude to her weight and size many times. After being scrutinised and body shamed since her debut with Salman Khan’s Dabangg in 2010, 34-year-old Sonakshi recently revealed that body shaming and sizeism persist despite her weight loss and fitness regime.
What Sonakshi said about the constant body shaming
Image credit: iDiva, with photography by Rahul Jhangiani
The actress, who is doing a film called Double XL with Huma Qureshi, told Times Of India, “No matter what size you are, people are always discussing it, which I think is bordering on the unnecessary now. We talk endlessly about cutting out discrimination on the basis of sex, colour and race. Why leave out body size and weight? Size should also be on that list of things that we should not be discriminated against.”
Sonakshi said Huma and she tried not to feel guilty about weight gain
Image credit: iDiva, with photography by Rahul Jhangiani
She also recounted that Huma and she had to consciously avoid feeling guilty about putting on weight for their film, Double XL, “We actually put on a lot of weight because we had to look convincing playing our roles. Both Huma and I are foodies, so we relished the experience. But we didn’t do it without caution… When we were overweight girls in our early years, both of us would beat ourselves for it. Huma and I made sure that this time we don’t beat ourselves up for putting on the weight. On the contrary, we had a blast!”
Body shaming happens regardless of size
Image credit: iDiva, with photography by Rahul Jhangiani
Many don’t seem to realise the fact that body shaming doesn’t come from a place of concern for one’s health, or from a desire to see the world fit. Someone cannot measure your health by just looking at your size, so for them to comment on it without knowing the details of your lifestyle, food habits and medical reports is just shallow.
Image credit: iDiva, with photography by Rahul Jhangiani
Sonakshi and Huma are committed to being fit but enjoy their food. We, as the public, don’t know the details of how much they work out, what they eat, or how healthy their lifestyle is. So, what gives anyone the right to shame them and tell them to work on their body? For all you know, they could be working out twice as much as someone who is half their size. They could have a much healthier system than someone who is more petite than them. The fact that Sonakshi has been labelled with mean terms since the beginning of her career and the fact that these labels have stuck despite her losing a lot of weight and getting incredibly fit are proof of how such shaming actually has nothing to do with your health, but superficial markers. So can this unnecessary commentary on female celebrities’ bodies stop now?
Lead image credit: iDiva, with photography by Rahul Jhangiani
