“I think that whatever size or shape body you have, it’s important to embrace it and get down! The female body is something that’s so beautiful. I wish women would be proud of their bodies and not diss other women for being proud of theirs!” (Christina Aguilera)
Being fat for women in Pakistan has become like a taboo, a bad one, especially for the young unmarried girls. Being fat is of course not good for health but that includes all types of human beings women and men alike. So why is it that in our country only women are targeted and humiliated for being fat?
Now a days families in our country demand slim and smart girls who are beautiful, highly qualified and experts at home management for their sons, forgetting that their own sons might only be an undergraduate and fat as anything but no their wives should be perfect in every sense; in short a dream girl.
If you just open the matrimonial page of any newspaper or magazines, it is simply disappointing. I mean where is this country going!? The requirements by the groom’s family for the girl are so stupid; they are like flying high above clouds. I mean they should be realistic, girls are humans too not robots and in some families obesity runs in the family, so technically girls belonging to such families don’t even have any fault in being fat. They have a strong healthy body, which is natural, and they can’t become a Victoria's secret model.
"Girls of all kinds can be beautiful – from the thin, plus-sized, short, very tall, ebony to porcelain-skinned; the quirky, clumsy, shy, outgoing and all in between. It’s not easy though because many people still put beauty into a confining, narrow box…Think outside of the box…Pledge that you will look in the mirror and find the unique beauty in you." (Tyra Banks)
It’s not only before marriage that girls are targeted, even after marriage they are humiliated by their in laws and husbands. Mostly women after giving birth naturally gain weight and I believe they are not to be blamed for it.
I believe girls who are fat should go on a healthy diet just to maintain a healthy lifestyle and look good to feel good for themselves only, but if you have a stubborn fat or you can’t reduce after trying, well girl you should still be confident. An example of being fat but having confidence is Tess Holliday who is an American plus-size model.
She states, “I think that some of the biggest surprises I’ve had early on, actually to this day, are all the misconceptions about my body and my health. There are so many people who think that being a plus-size model, that there’s something wrong with it, or that I must be unhealthy or that I’m promoting an unhealthy lifestyle. And at first it was very hard, and I blamed it on myself, and then I thought… my health is none of their business, I’m modelling for this clothing company, so why are people dissecting my body and telling me that I can’t wear some things? That I can’t look a certain way because of my body? And I did combat that for a while, and argue with people about that, but ultimately it’s kind of like banging your head into a brick wall. If people are committed to that theory, I’m not going to change their mind. But there people who look like me, and feel like me, who feel like they don’t have a voice, and that encouraged me to keep going.”
Even though she is a foreigner that doesn’t change the subject, I’m totally not saying girls should go out wearing tight fitted clothes and exposing of their bodies to prove their confidence about their weight and everything. We live in an Islamic country so we should of course wear decent and modest clothes that cover our body, no matter what our body weight is. Showing that you are confident about your weight can be accomplished in many other ways like:
1. Never underestimate yourself when seeing some other slim person.
2. Go in public with confidence.
3. Don’t feel shy because of your weight.
4. Go do a job with full confidence.
5. Go dine out and eat in restaurants without being nervous.
6. Go to family gatherings such as; weddings and dress up with confidence.
7. Take part in sport activities.
8. Drive car with full confidence in public.
Other than these, there are numerous ways to be confident about your weight. However, the better change in society cannot come only if women are confident about their weight, there is a lot of stuff on part of men, they have to stop fat-shamming women, and making fun of them, our society can become so much better if men stop doing stuff like:
1. Starring at women.
2. Making fun of them, stop cracking jokes about them.
3. Teasing them.
4. Humiliating them in public.
If you look at the above image, the woman is still pretty even though she is a little overweight. In short, women are beautiful whether they are fat or slim. My own personal motto is if someone calls you fat just say to yourself: I’m not fat, I’m just fluffy”