The eternal trap of bodily perfection

IN A HILARIOUS clip that’s been watched and shared a million times, the protagonist in the show Fleabag is attending a feminist lecture where the speaker asks the audience: “Please raise your hands if you would trade five years of your life for a ‘perfect body’.” She raises her hand enthusiastically but cringes after realising she’s the only one who has. “We’re bad feminists,” the eponymous Fleabag whispered to her companion, rolling her eyes and shrugging philosophically. Why is this funny? Because it’s true. Women of every age, background, race, caste and whatever else there is that divides the female gender otherwise is in unanimous agreement about this, that they’ll willingly give up almost everything to be svelte and sexy.

Alas, perhaps, this hard truth doesn’t paint us in an intellectually flattering light. Fleabag’s most relatable honesty stands in sharp contrast with the muddled messaging around body image, stupefyingly, that you can’t be a feminist and care about your appearance at the same time. Entrenched stereotypes cast feminists as angry, grey-haired and badly dressed, too preoccupied with women’s woes to be bothered by something as transient as chasing beauty. Vanity, as a primary motivation, is frowned upon as a frivolous pursuit; as though in practice anyone is actually doing anything about climate change. All this posturing and lip service to woke-ness has vanished post Ozempic that has exposed society’s secret ambivalence to fat — in the process calling out a lot of bluffs within the discourse that what you look like doesn’t matter.

“All bodies are beautiful,” claimed body-positivity influencers over the last decade, whose blithe posts like “A flat stomach won’t change your life” resonated with the unfit masses. Lately, plussize models have graced the cover of the original, holy grail of fit bikini-bodies, Sports Illustrated, “fat-activism” has entered the popular lexicon and Abercrombie & Fitch got cancelled for not making extra large sizes. Clothing brands don’t dare disregard overweight icons whose huge Instagram followings have made them a force to reckon with. However, what does it say that the minute a miraculous drug that promises weight can be fixed enters the scene — the very people who proudly celebrated their curves immediately abandoned their fight against weight stigma — and chose thinness instead? Examples: model Dronme Davis, Oprah Winfrey.

Thin is in. It was always in but for a while it hasn’t been cool to say so. It’s hard to shake off thousands of years of conditioning; even a Biblical proverb warns against the sin of gluttony. In our era of instant gratification, what joy to be able to feast without a care in the world! Though we may finally have that proverbial cake and eat it too, this breakthrough raises several existential questions. Luxury, as any economist will attest, is a function of scarcity; not unlike thinness, which many strive for but few achieve. The overarching appeal of 10-carat diamonds and a willowy frame is exclusivity, because getting there is painstakingly hard, requiring a mix of denial and effort. Competitive thrills being an intrinsic part of human nature, will we ascribe the same value to slimness when everybody can pop Ozempic and look fantastic?

It’s the holy month of Ramadan, the ordained time for reflection and gratitude for the blessings we have, but pertinently, it’s a sobering nudge towards personal transformation.logic ally, fasting is counterintuitive, but it’ s only by experiencing hunger can we imagine the plight of those who live with constant deprivation. while hard ship doesn’ t have a lotto recommend it, taking all the pain out of doing hard things isn’t the answer either. Slogging at work, dieting, ending a relationship is a way to get to know ourselves and discover what we’re capable of. A chemical intervention to achieve a target weight isak into taking drugs to get high; a quick fix, minus the reward of clarity that comes only the old-fashioned way: through grit and perseverance.

The writer is director, Hutkay Films