Plus-sized woman defies body stereotypes
Dolly Singh has gained a fan following online for promoting body positivity through yoga
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 fan 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,” Singh tells AFP after completing her morning stretch in a Mumbai park.
Four years ago a doctor advised her to lose weight following an ankle sprain. Singh, who is 4 feet 11 inches (150cm), weighed almost 90kg then.
She got a trainer and embraced the “whole frenzy of losing weight” but grew bored of running so she signed up for something she’d never done before — yoga.
“The first class I was thinking ‘Can I really do this because I have a big body?’ After two or three class I realised people were looking at me and thinking ‘Oh my god she can do this’. My body had a certain kind of stamina, of flexibility.”
Singh, who works for a TV channel in India’s financial capital, soon realised there were limitations to group classes and sought the instruction she needed from videos online.
“We all have different bodies and if my teacher doesn’t have a belly, how will they know what the problems are of having a big belly,” she explains, laughing.
“I’m a big busted person and if the teacher isn’t a woman how are they going to understand that when I’m doing a Halasana [plough pose] I’m almost choking to death!”
Singh started filming herself to monitor her progress and then began posting clips.