Weight loss has been the mantra for most Indian women for more than a decade now. The obsession creeped in ever so gently, unannounced, and quiet. A closer look at our movies is proof enough. In the 50’s and 60’s, our heroines were never thin. The focus seemed to be more on the face and her acting skills. Every decade witnessed a shift and by the 90’s, sculpted bodies slowly became the norm. Fat became strictly a topic for the comedy interludes.
As advertisements and movie stars constantly project the ideal slim image, women who lead normal existences with all its ensuing responsibilities, are left chasing this unattainable body for most part of their lives. The chiselled physique is attainable for perhaps a small fraction of the population, while 70% of the women in our nation were never meant to get there. Slender as a beauty standard is relatively new and art history is testimony to the fact.
Most periods in history considered chubby and curvaceous women as the epitomes of femininity. Ancient civilisations regarded a big body as a definition of health, beauty, and fertility.
One of the earliest known depictions of a woman, the Paleolithic limestone statue Venus of Willdendorf from 30,000 years ago, had exaggerated body fat that probably represented fertility and survival.
When Sultan Ibrahim I of the Ottoman Empire ascended the throne in 1640, he was so infatuated with overweight women that he ordered the ladies in his harem to be fed with sweets and be fattened up. He sent his soldiers to look for the most obese female in Constantinople and when they found her, a 150 kg heavy woman, he made her his royal mistress and she even bore him a son. It is only possible to imagine how all this must have completely unsettled the hitherto known laws of beauty!
During the Renaissance, fuller figures were considered the heights of fashion. Being heavy simply meant that the lady was financially well enough to eat to her heart’s content and that she never had to engage in physical labour. Rotundity was certainly a positive trait and the pinnacle of elegance. Most artists celebrated plump women. A big stomach and full hips were symbols of high social standing. Rubens’ paintings of voluptuous women from the early 17th century led to the term Rubenesque being used even today to describe heavier women. Colombian artist, Fernando Botero was famous for his rotund sculptures of ‘volumetric’ figures. Contemporary artists do portray plus-size bodies, although the past decades of fatphobia have taken its toll on the perception of beauty. Women artists like Jenny Saville have been making an impact with their portraits of ‘real’ women.
For the millions of women out there, who don’t fit into impossible size-zero standards and have been shamed into the background, a glimpse into art history would certainly provide solace. A woman’s beauty without the chains of pre-determined sizes, have been immortalised in art, sending out the strongest message across eras that nobody should be made to feel unworthy and lesser than! So go ahead and boldly write your own definition of ‘perfect’!