YOGI WOMAN DEFIES BODY STEREOTYPES

Dolly Singh gains fans by showing her plus-size is no barrier to mastering complex moves

MUMBAI

APLUS-sized Indian woman is challenging body stereotypes and defying Internet trolls with a series of yoga videos that are proving a hit on social media. Dolly Singh, 34, has gained something of a following online for promoting body positivity by showing that size is no barrier to mastering complex yoga moves.

“To say ‘You can’t do this because you have so much weight,’ I don’t believe that,” Dolly said after completing her morning stretch in a park here.

Four years ago, a doctor advised her to lose weight following an ankle sprain.

Dolly was 1.5m tall and weighed almost 90kg at the time. She got a trainer and embraced the “whole frenzy of losing weight”. But she grew bored of running and signed up for something she’d never done before — yoga.

“At my first class, I asked myself ‘Can I really do this because I have a big body?’ After two or three classes, I realised people were looking at me and thinking ‘Oh my god, she can do this’. My body has a certain kind of stamina, of flexibility.”

Dolly, who works for a television channel in the financial capital here, soon realised there were limitations to group classes, and sought the instruction she needed from videos online.

“We have different bodies and if my teachers don’t have a belly, how will they Dolly Singh, 34, doing yoga at a park in Mumbai recently. The plus-sized Indian woman is challenging body stereotypes and defying Internet trolls with yoga videos that are proving a hit on social media.

know what the problems are of having a big belly?” she explains, laughing.

“I’m a big-busted person and if the teachers won’t, how will they understand that when I’m doing a halasana (plough pose)? I’m almost choking to death!”

Dolly started filming herself to monitor her progress, and posted clips of her yoga poses on Instagram. Soon, she was inundated with messages, mainly from foreigners at first, but then, from Indian women saying that she was an inspiration.

“I’ve been overwhelmed by some people saying they would feel alienated in a room full of perfect yoga bodies, how they would feel that everyone is watching them.

“There’s an idea of not showing your body if you’re big bodied. You’re supposed to hide everything because its not

appealing or it’s not something people like to see, but that’s just something that’s been sold to us,” she insists.

The response hasn’t all been positive, however. Dolly says she has been the victim of body shaming online.

“Indian men have not been encouraging at all. There are a lot of people who write nasty comments. They would say something like ‘You’re just a fat blob, you look just like an elephant or bear, or you’re unfit or it’s because you’re eating so much.

“I completely ignore these things. You can’t fight Internet trolls. I don’t know these people so why should it bother me?”

Dolly, who now weighs 73kg, says she will continue trying to sell “a more positive body image” and “challenge notions of fitness and beauty”. AFP