|
|
|
Fascism against fat
In Pakistan's Urbania (urban mania) you can be a drug smuggler, a paedophile, a rapist, a bank defaulter or an owner of a private jail and you will still be respected. You just can’t be fat, chubby or even plump. You can get away with murder but not with an extra bit of fat. You are the worst criminal if you don't fit into a standard mannequin sized outfit. You are doomed. Not even God can save you from the ultimate social insult.
The greatest compliment you can pay to anyone is “Wow you are so thin” or “You have lost so much weight”. By the same token, the greatest insult you can hurl at an urbanite is the exact opposite. This is the only loss/gain situation where gain brings suffering and loss is celebrated. Urbania is a surreal place; its extremely difficult social conditions to live in are an interesting study.
However, it is a very democratic country. It really doesn't matter how educated/ignorant, stylish/dorky, poor/rich you are, it's your basic human right to comment on people's weight without a greeting or even an introduction. The whole population of Urbania seems to be avid weight watchers. They watch their own weight, and also watch others’ with an even greater passion.
Those on the wrong side of the Rotund Line (as disputed as the Durand Line) are constantly under earth-shattering pressure. The number of men suffering from this epidemic is growing, but like all other social injustices and inequalities, women seem to be the favourite target of this fat fascism. This is because partly it is a women-hating society and also because women are far more impressionable in this regard than men. And this fat obsession is another example of how women are each other’s worst enemies. All slogans of sisterhood get buried under layers of fat and die a suffocating death. TV informercials advertise nothing but weight/fat losing miracles; FM radios’ morning transmissions blare advice from 'experts'; TV morning shows stress upon bad fat (according to social pressure, there are no good fats).Women's magazines devote regular pages on the subject — from health and beauty advice to psychological, medical and spiritual, the issue figures in all problem columns of all women's digests in the Urdu language. There is no escape from these voices.
I fear that all fat/overweight people are suffering from psychiatric ailments ranging from depression to schizophrenia. I am convinced they all have nightmares where they are slowly turning into Sumo wrestlers and their clothes are ripping from their skin; in fact their skin is also ripping. And a crowd of stick-thin, flat-chested women is having the last laugh to the beats of ‘jinga la la hoo hoo’.
Interestingly enough, overweight people are not the only ones who are under the immense pressure to lose weight. Thin people suffer from a different form: the pressure is to stay thin and become even thinner. I often witness super thin women and shapely men discussing weight problems. Various tips and diets are frequently exchanged but the tone and conversation dynamics totally change. Sharing and concern replace a patronising element in their tones. Superiority is brought down to equality because it's usually a chat among the members of an exclusive club. Sympathy is shown when a member expresses concern over their weight gain — from 90 pounds to 90 and half. It’s rather disconcerting.
In defence of chubbiness, I would like to quote a couple of examples. Forget the 19th century beauty standards where voluptuous figures were considered one of the elements of beauty. In recent history we have Madhuri Dixit who still looks fabulous. No one can match her when it comes to dance, acting or simply looking good. We all know who stole the show in Devdas. Similarly, on the domestic front Atiqa Odho has proved that it's all about charisma and how you conduct yourself. And then there are those “celebrities” who, after losing tons of weight, lose their pleasant personas and turn into aggressive, obnoxious beings. Surely some amount of fat should be required to being a nice person.
In defence of chubbiness, I would like to quote a couple of examples. Forget the 19th century beauty standards where voluptuous figures were considered one of the elements of beauty. In recent history we have Madhuri Dixit who still looks fabulous. No one can match her when it comes to dance, acting or simply looking good. We all know who stole the show in ‘Devdas’. Similarly, on the domestic front, Atiqa Odho has proved that it's all about charisma and how you conduct yourself. And then there are those ‘celebrities’ who, after losing tons of weight, lose their pleasant personas and turn into aggressive, obnoxious beings. Surely some amount of fat should be required to being a nice person
This weight circus provides me with great, incomparable entertainment. I am not saying that we should turn the landscape of Urbania into that of the USA where obesity is a favourite pastime — although we have a couple of examples of this phenomenon in our country. In the case of a famous Jill-of-all-trades Karachi socialite (Lahore should be celebrating that the tiara has this time gone to Karachi), it is difficult to decide if she is obese or obnoxious. In fact, the two are somehow connected because I have overheard her commenting on other people's weight when she herself is the sole example of how even black cannot hide her tyres. I digress.
I am bitterly against becoming the UN's mascot of the malnourished and the underfed. We have an example of this phenomenon, too. At a party, I saw a Karachi girl who used to be drop dead gorgeous and well proportioned body wise; she was pleasantly thin. The entire city had a crush on her but she then fell victim to this weight loss epidemic. Apparently, she survives on strips of veggies and it is alleged that if she has a little more than her 'normal' share, she throws up deliberately. She is reportedly bulimic. On top of it she likes to flaunt her hard-earned flag carrier for the UN's mascot for underfed. At this party, she was clad in skin-(read bone)-hugging jeans. Her legs were thinner than an Ethopian cat's thighs. I am convinced her worst nightmare is a mob of Sumo wrestlers force feeding her tubs of chocolates and ice cream.
There seems to be a conspiracy going against overweight people. International fashion designers stress on becoming thin. All good clothes are made in extra small or small sizes. Media projects the likes of Aishwarya Rai, Vaneeza Ahmed and Gisele Bunchen as role models. Meanwhile men like Arjun Rampal or the model in the Ollwell milk advertisements are drooled upon. Long, never ending mid riffs, fat-chests and no hips are now the epitome of a beautiful female form; whereas in men, six packs, developed biceps, triceps and various other delicacies are the dream of every man and woman. In short, we are made to believe that if you are overweight, you have no right to live. The most popular argument against fat is that it's impossible to look good with extra weight. What utter nonsense!
Thankfully, two of the world's most important fashion weeks have banned size zero models. New York and Paris are still debating making this move. But do we need ditsy designers and fashionably sick minds to tell us that it's alright to be over size zero? Why can’t we understand that it is models’ and actresses’ job to look good — whatever that means! They are not real people. They are made of celluloid, and cellulite is its nemesis. If they — like us mere mortals — had to juggle a routine life of more than eight hours of work, taking care of their homes, social responsibilities and so forth, these media beauties would also look like us. You may argue that isn’t it the job of the media and corporate organisations to behave responsibly and discourage such super thin sculpted figures? My answer is simple: when have the media and corporates behaved responsibly? So why take them seriously?There has to be a balance where the scale needle doesn't become a pendulum. If you are chubby/overweight, you should simply embrace it instead of getting embarrassed. You should try to lose the uncomfortable layers of fat but do so for the right reasons. And the primary right reason should be for one’s health and not because one simply wants to look good. All I am saying is: stay healthy. It’s up to you to figure out what healthy means to you. Surely, bulimia and anorexia don’t define healthy, neither does obesity. My friend Vaneeza says: “Think thin and you will be.” I say: just think.
|
|
|
|
