LIKE, COMMENT, SMASH STEREOTYPES
Meet young Instagrammers who are using the platform to celebrate flaws and insecurities, encouraging honest discussions about concepts of identity, beauty and the self
In what is largely a picture-perfect world, some Instagram users are dedicating their pages to vulnerabilities, frailties, flaws. One explores women’s relationships with their breasts, another highlights beauty in the queer / drag experience. A photographer focuses on the magic of every smile, and a ‘brown girl’ is taking pictures of imperfections. Each has a following that supports the message and sometimes even helps take on trolls. On a platform where beauty and happiness tend to be treated as synonymous with perfection, these handles are gentle reminders from a more real world.
Why does this matter? Because it has the potential to alter narratives.
“When such pages get attention, institutions that create mainstream trends take notice. You are already seeing this percolate into the general entertainment space,” says Parmesh Shahani, author, culturist and head of the Godrej India Culture Lab. “Netflix’s Isn’t it Romantic has Rebel Wilson in the lead and Priyanka Chopra as the sidekick.”
For those behind these accounts, it’s enough that they’ve started a conversa-
› One woman wrote, ‘I wish breasts were detachable things that one could remove at the end of the day.’ Another wrote about the first time she breastfed her child, and said she had found a new respect for her breasts then. INDU HARIKAR, artist who runs #identitty on her Instagram account, @induviduality
tion. “I created @browngirlgazin because of the massive incongruence I saw in the way women in my hostel presented themselves online and how they felt offline,” says Anushka Kelkar, 22, a researcher in Mumbai. “So many of the women felt inadequate in their bodies, offline. I wanted to offer a space that allows women to be vulnerable and honest about their bodies.”
YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL
Less than a year ago, @browngirlgazin began turning heads on Instagram for her pictures of young women and their relationships with their bodies. Skin colour, stretch marks, piercings, people with eat- ing disorders, nothing was taboo.
Kelkar started the page while studying at Ashoka University in New Delhi. She put out a call for volunteers, and made up a short questionnaire, asking about women’s relationship with their bodies when they were younger, how family had contributed to their ideas, etc, details she draws on for her captions.
“The messages of gratitude that I got from strangers indicated to me the impact these photos were having,” she says. There’s been criticism too, mainly that Kelkar features only urban upper classes, something Kelkar is slowly working to fix.
Meanwhile, she has over 9,000 followers. “This project has also changed the way I look at my body,” she says. “I am no longer consumed by the weight I might have gained. I listen to my body.”
SMILE, PLEASE
What’s in a smile? Everything, according to photographer Jay Weinstein. For six years, he’s been going around the world, asking strangers to smile for his camera.
Each post is a two-picture album showing the person’s resting face, and a smile. The idea is for the handle to show how inaccurate our assumptions of others are, Weinstein says on his website.
It started with an encounter in Bikaner, Rajasthan, in 2013. Weinstein noticed a man he wanted to shoot, but hesitated because of his stern face, and turned his camera elsewhere. That’s when the man called out, “Take my picture too!”
“I turned and asked him to smile. His face radiated warmth, his eyes sparkled with a humour I had completely missed. Even his posture softened. I knew then what my next project would be.”
He set up the @soiaskedthemtosmile handle three years later, and each photo since then has been accompanied by a brief description of the circumstance in which Weinstein bumped into the smiler.
There are no names, occupations or religions. The objective, Weinstein says, is to allow the viewer to spend time with the portraits and notice their own reactions and thoughts. For Weinstein, it’s been a lesson in how, as he puts it, we all are far more alike than we are different.
For his followers, 5,700 and counting, it’s a happy reminder of the same thing. ‘Like the sun from behind a cloud,’ says @lifesart53. ‘I love this project! The smile is a universal language,’ says @serfagna.
IDENTITTY ISSUES
Artist Indu Harikar has used her Instagram account, @induviduality, for visual campaigns on dating and sexuality. Her latest is called #identitty and is focused on breasts. “In January, I asked women to send in pictures of their breasts — nude, or dressed, in lace, flowers, mehendi, or anything they liked — along with personal stories of experiences around their breasts.”
She then had over 7,000 followers across the country and many responded. Harikar, 39, then made digital recreations of the images and posted them along with each woman’s story.
#identitty started with a conversation on her direct message tab. “One woman wrote in telling me that men she’d interact with would always stare at her breasts. This took me back to the time when I was younger and people would say to me, ‘What will you give your husband?’ referring to my tiny breasts,” says Harikar.
After she invited entries, she got stories of love, discontentment, adoration, and the complicated relationships women have with their breasts. One woman wrote, “I wish breasts were detachable things that one could remove at the end of the day…”
Many said it was the first time they had been able to address these feelings.
A mother wrote in, “With my first born, I couldn’t [breastfeed] for 10 days. But one day magically he latched on. It was painful and tiring but I was so proud... I have new found respect for my breasts…”
For Harikar, it has become a place to also deal with her grievances and become more comfortable in her body. “Because now it feels like we’re all in this together.”
BOLD AND BEAUTIFUL
By day, Alex Mathew works as a marketing executive in Bengaluru. At night, he transforms into Mayamma, a “quintessential Indian woman of Malayali heritage”, and a sari-clad drag queen frequently seen performing at nightclubs.
Maya started her Instagram account @mayathedragqueen in 2015, a few months after she assumed her drag identity. The idea, she says, was to spread love. “I wanted to show everyone that people like me exist. I wanted to tell them that I’m happy that I found my true self,” she says.
She has had to find a way to deal with trolls.
“A common ‘judgement’ I receive is, ‘OMG, you’re so gay!’, to which I happily reply, “Yeah, duh!’ I also tell people that they should mind their own business because they’re not paying my bills.”
These days, with a following of over 12,000, she either deletes or ignores ignorant messages. “I raise my voice against important things — like abuse against the LGBT community,” she says.
The account has become bigger than Maya expected it to be, she says, and it has given her a positive outlook and the opportunity to educate people about drag.
This is reflected in some of the comments. @thekillermonsta says, “You look absolutely wonderful! I don’t do drag but I am very gender fluid! It’s so inspiring to see a strong person like you! Specially desi... lots of love and respect!”