Actor Athiya Shetty has opened up about her experience with body shaming. She stated that she used to be very conscious of her body as people trolled her for being skinny during her teenage days.
“I have fallen into the category of body shaming when I was young. People need to realise that body-shaming is not only associated with being overweight but also skinny and I have always believed that commenting on someone’s weight, appearance, anything that can make them less confident is something I don’t believe in. You do not know what battle people are facing and you do not know what their insecurities are. I always believe if you do not have anything nice to say, just don’t say anything at all. Our words have such an impact on people and our everyday lives. It is important to be kind, how we feel reflects in our everyday’s activities,” Athiya told ANI.
She added, “I do not really deal with them anymore. I used to when I was a child and when I was a teenager. I used to be very conscious of my body, I still am. But I am a lot better because I have confidence in myself today. People don’t know what body shaming is, they believe it concerns people who are overweight and that is not okay as well. People also body shame who are skinny and who might look a certain way. That is incorrect as well.” According to Athiya, films, magazines and social media have also somehow promoted body shaming.
“I do feel that there are so many boys and girls, men and women who aspire to be a certain body type, aspire to be a certain way in terms of their appearance because of social media, because of magazine covers, because of movies, reality shows. There are so many false adjectives of beautiful and that’s something scary because there are so many people wanting to look the same way,” she said. Athiya emphasised embracing the flaws.
“Social media, it’s also starting from a young age which is sad as well as scary but I am seeing the change now. Magazine covers have done some covers which have been real, that help men and women understand that being real is beautiful as well. Being real also means that you come with flaws and that is okay. Being imperfect is your own perfect. It’s important to help society understand that not everyone will look the same or be the same. It’s spoken about women more, but all men are also not the same. It’s tough to sometimes be a certain way you should not need to feel that,” she concluded.
