For someone who’s been talking about body positivity on social media since 2016, it wasn’t a big deal for Mumbai girl Tanvi Geetha Ravishankar, 30, to wear a swimsuit for a Reel, captioned, “For far too long the world has convinced us that fat people are not ‘hot’. It’s time to prove them wrong. Scratch the narrative. Coz hot is a state of mind, not a body type or size”. Because how else do you break stereotypes?
“It’s such a tired narrative that fat people are cute and never sexy or hot,” Tanvi explains.
Swimsuit debut
The first time the digital content creator wore a bikini was in 2017, after years of wearing loose T-shirts and cycling shorts to swimming pools. Then she had a swimsuit customised for her honeymoon.
“People got so inspired with the pictures. They said that they were 40 and had never had the courage to step into the pool in a swimsuit. But a swimsuit is just a uniform at the pool. Just wear it. No one really cares,” she says.
For fashion-savvy Tanvi, body insecurity was never a thing. “Whatever you do, if you do it confidently, it shows. And that confidence intimidates people.”
This doesn’t mean she wasn’t ever mocked. But when Tanvi, who had wanted to be a dancer since she was three years old, was told she couldn’t pursue it because she didn’t have the body for it, it went beyond societal body shaming.
{{/usCountry}}This doesn’t mean she wasn’t ever mocked. But when Tanvi, who had wanted to be a dancer since she was three years old, was told she couldn’t pursue it because she didn’t have the body for it, it went beyond societal body shaming.
{{/usCountry}}“This is after I had lost 25-30 kgs to join the dance academy by starving myself and working out. That shattered me,” says Tanvi.
Reactions to the post?
Tanvi doesn’t engage with trolls when she’s in a bad mood and deletes comments that are too crass or ugly. “I give sassy replies if I’m in a good mood. Otherwise, I just let them be,” she says. She does sometimes feel bad about the trolling, though.
“People can be quite mean, even saying that I’ll die soon! How negative can you be to fantasise about someone’s death just because she’s fat! Keep your stereotypes to yourself,” she concludes.
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From HT Brunch, January 21, 2023
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