Rochelle Rao speak up about body shaming
The actoranchor recently took to social media to highlight how women are pressured to look or dress in a certain way
Rochelle Rao has taken to social media to put up photos of herself highlighting her imperfections. The actor and anchor was recently body shamed on social media for her weight, which is why she thought to highlight her imperfections through photographs rather than hiding them. She says, “As celebrities, we often get positive and negative feedback, but some comments are nonsensical trolling. I don’t mind being criticised or getting comments like, ‘You are not my type’ or ‘I don’t like the dress you are wearing’, as everyone is entitled to their opinion. But it’s different when people comment on your weight or skin colour.”
On the heels of the recent ‘#MeToo’ movement where people spoke about their experience harassment , Rochelle felt it doesn’t make sense just postioning the without sharing experiences She says, “It’s easy to say happened to me’ and move onon, but what next? How will we change our mindset? Maybe we can’t change overnight, but each little step helps. We promote wrong body goals; we raise a generation of men who, on one hand, are taught to respect women, and on the other hand, see perfect women on TV who they won’t ever meet in real life. So, they end up as frustrated men who have no respect for women. Women are also at fault, as we don’t teach our daughters to be proud of how they look. As nation, we are colour-prejudiced and use words like ‘fat’ casually. Both men and women are responsible for how we look at women.”
The anchor admits that not all men are like that and neither are “all women targeted”. She says, “As women, we also allow such perceptions to exist when women target each other. In fact, women should be supportive of their own gender. When you feel strongly about something, you should speak up, and I did that. My friends asked me if I was okay being so vulnerable, but I told them that it was alright, because I’d been on a reality TV show where people saw me without makeup and brushing my teeth.”
Rochelle adds that makeup should be about fun and not about “being pressurised” to look a certain way or to fit into a certain dress. “I will feel putting up my post was worth it if even one girl out there feels that she doesn’t care what people think of her or her dressing sense and be herself.”
Women are also at fault, as we don’t teach our daughters to be proud of how they look. As nation, we are colourprejudiced.
ROCHELLE RAO, ACTORANCHOR