Body of lies

Bizarre initiatives such as the PantyChallenge and Belly-Button Challenge are serving to propagate same old misguided notions of non-existent ‘perfection’

Only last month, social media went up in arms against body shaming and body image myths after a Singaporean fashion blogger with a few extra pounds was shamed for posting images of her in a bikini. While many lauded the response and hailed social media for taking up the fight against shamers, a certain ‘challenge’ that surfaced this week has proven that the enemy it’s fighting, lies very much within its own domain. The initiative called the ‘PantyChallenge’ asked women to post pictures of their ‘half-removed’, ‘stain or discharge free’ underwear to promote a perceived need to combat vaginal discharge and thereby portraying it as ‘unnatural’. But this isn’t the first such ‘challenge’ to do so. Earlier this week, another challenge called the ‘belly-button challenge’ urged women to post a picture of them twisting their arm around the back and touching their belly-button (a feat only possible for women with a very thin waist-line).

While the Internet did slam both the challenges in adequate measure, a disturbing aspect is that thousands of women happily propagated these challenges and even obliged to post pictures of them taking it up. With such ‘challenges’ making up a harmful trend online, we got a few girls from the city to take stock of the effect they are having and how to counter them.

Anuradha Menon A.K.A lolla kutty Honestly, I don’t take these surveys, challenges or studies seriously. Every month, Cosmopolitan comes up with something called ‘101 ways to pleasure your man!’ I didn’t even know that there were so many ways! And then you hear thing like how a model got her ribs removed because she wanted a slimmer waist. It later becomes an addiction to have a particular kind of body image and fit in a size. Teenagers and girls should understand that genes also play a very important role. Somewhere down the line it also promotes eating disorders like Anorexia and Bulimia. Nothing is just a passing remark anymore and has a counter-effect.

Sanjana Donkar, content writer I am absolutely against these challenges. Everybody doesn’t have the same genes, so what is the point of jumping on the bandwagon Fitting into these social stereotypes could be a morale booster for a handful, but it pushes many people into believing that they are not perfect. More than fitting a body type it is important to feel healthy. Being able to twist arm and show off my clean underwear is not going to make me perfect. This is a most bizarre practice and it’s sad to see so many women falling prey to it.

Habiba Bhavnagarvala, Lecturer There are a lot of social experiments that are conducted almost every week, however very few gain popularity. And within a few weeks these too fizzle out. Experiments that involve body image issues are popular only because they talk about the human body, more specifically female human body. In a society like ours, where we shy away from discussing menstruation, an experiment as such won’t get unnoticed. Every post on social media, will garner positive as well as negative feedback. On one hand, we talk about a liberating mindset when it comes to menstruation but on the other, we are teaching the young minds that discharge is dirty. So while we are opening up about certain topics, we are also being misled and misinformed about many others.

Mahima Kukreja, copy writer: I think it is pretty ridiculous that even today young girls are expected to fit into the ‘perfect body’ image, which is something that doesn’t exist. It is worrying that girls are expected to work towards this. At one end, there are campaigns about accepting your body size, and on another, there are challenges like these. If I were to create a body-positivity campaign, I would try to dispel the notion that if you’re fat, you are complacent about your body. There are so many women I know who love to dance but do not because they are ashamed of their body. I would like to show women engaging in physical activities to discourage this myth.”

Sanjana Das, PR executive These social media experiments are part of a shallow fad that should not be the deciding factor of a healthy body image. Such activities travel faster through social media and rise in terms of popularity and give out misleading ideas of what perfection is! One must be fit to be healthy in his/her own way and not to adhere to such silly norms. It is better to be self-aware and happy rather than relying on or shaming others over unrealistic social media challenges.