Can we take weight loss off the pedestal? 

Body shaming became passe in the last decade; trolls need to stop from being vicious

“It is uncool to fat shame any one,” tweeted Malaika Arora Khan last week after her sister Amrita was body-shamed for gaining weight. The trolls, of course, did what they best do.

After her red carpet appearance at Cannes last month, Aishwarya Rai was at the receiving end for her ‘botox looks’. The trolls labelled her ‘ buddhi’ (old) and aunty and said the fillers treatment went wrong for her and as a result she’s lost her charm.

Amrita instagrammed a befitting reply: “Got a lot of hate on my weight gain! I own it…. I love it… my weight my problem! Since when has everything become everyone’s issue.”

Kareena Kapoor Khan, age-shamed for her looks, also responded wackily: “ Buddhi is meant to be an insult?? Coz for me it’s just a word… a word that means old? Yes we are older… n wiser… but you, are nameless, faceless, ageless? And so are your folks.”

When netizens show insensitivity, divas are well within their right to take a savage stance against the trolls for their own emotional well-being, says Dr. Kersi Chavda, psychiatry consultant at PD Hinduja Hospital, Mumbai.

Beauty and power is a heady mix but celebrities often pay a price for their popularity. It is not easy for anybody to remain unfazed when fun is poked at them. The celebrities may put up a bold front of being unaffected, but they are human too. “Besides being a public figure, they are also a partner, parent, sibling or a friend and are vulnerable like anybody else having a good or a bad day,” says Dr. Chavda. But for them, doing what their job demands, there is little focus on their emotional health. They randomly draw flak for their looks and outfits but does anybody care to extinguish their anguish? asks Dr. Chavda.

Psychiatrists, psychologists, fitness trainers and nutritionists say both genetic and environmental factors contribute to personality, continuity and change. The person who is bullied and the one who bullies, both need help; though it is not a said or done thing in our society.