Kavita Kaushik recently uploaded her bikini picture, but apparently for the first time perhaps we are talking about such a kind of photo for the right reasons.
The reason the picture is making waves is that it is absolutely filterless, natural and shows all the flaws of her body like a slight tummy, cellulite marks around her thighs and lower part of the bottom. And the best part is that Kaushik herself is showing no signs of self-consciousness and instead is proudly posing acting as a slap in the face of all body shamers.
A lot of actors and actresses no longer being ashamed of their bare face and instead show their patchy skin, discolouration, imperfections, pimples and more with pride.
What Kavita Kaushik Did?
While on a vacation in Goa, the FIR actress posted the image of her in a bikini on her Instagram page with the following message:
“Here’s to all women wanting to wear pretty bikinis but shy of their bodily flaws, who would know this better than me but you know what I realised we all have them, we all have some fat, some scars, some cervical spondylitis..oh sorry that’s just me who has it hope none of u do, some birthmarks that just don’t go no matter what ubtans and creams we apply !!
Grr .. so what now? Are we gonna Just waste our lives ogling at perfectly shaped models on the Internet and then criticising them or are we gonna hit the gym, eat a healthy diet, achieve our best fittest body and embrace all other flaws n be our unique beautiful best and jump into the ocean!!
I think it’s the latter, my cervical doesn’t stop me from doing the chakrasan (jiski acchi si photo samandar ke paas kheench ke kal dikhaaungi) Nothing should stop you from being the best version of you!! So all you fabulous ladies out there you are all beautiful/sexy/cute/pretty/ etc in your own unique way! Lift each other up and be powerful! Biggg hugg to all my girls #whoruntheworld #girls #fuckoffphotoshop.”
Read More: We Finally Know Why Men Made Sick Comments At Kalki And Esha Gupta’s Nude Photoshoot
Not Just Kaushik, Sonam Kapoor Too Had Done It
You could say, Kaushik is just a TV star and her reach is not that big, but apparently, Sonam Kapoor, a very well known actress in Bollywood had already taken a look at the intense body shaming that goes on in the industry and how she overcame it.
In an article that she wrote in 2016, she talked about the massive scrutiny she had to go through and how it started to affect her health, psyche, and mental well being.
An excerpt from it:
“So, for every teen girl leaning into her bedroom mirror, wondering why she doesn’t look like a celebrity: Please know that nobody wakes up like this. Not me. Not any other actress. (Not even Beyoncé. I swear.)
Here’s the real deal: Before each public appearance, I spend 90 minutes in a makeup chair. Three to six people work on my hair and makeup, while a professional touches up my nails. My eyebrows are tweezed and threaded every week. There’s concealer on parts of my body that I could never have predicted would need concealing.
I’m up at 6am every day and at the gym by 7:30. I exercise for 90 minutes and, some evenings, again before bed. It’s someone’s full-time job to decide what I can and cannot eat. There are more ingredients in my face packs than in my food. There’s a team dedicated to finding me flattering outfits.
After all that, if I’m still not “flawless” enough, there are generous servings of Photoshop.
I’ve said it before, and I will keep saying it: It takes an army, a lot of money, and an incredible amount of time to make a female celebrity look the way she does when you see her. It isn’t realistic, and it isn’t anything to aspire to.
Aspire to confidence. Aspire to feeling pretty and carefree and happy, without needing to look any specific way.
And the next time you see a 13-year-old girl gazing wistfully at a blemish-free, shiny-haired Bollywood actress on a magazine cover, bust the myth of flawlessness for her.
Tell her how beautiful she is. Praise her smile or her laugh or her mind or her gait.
Don’t let her grow up believing that she’s flawed, or that there’s anything she’s lacking for looking different from a woman on a billboard. Don’t let her hold herself to a standard that’s too high, even for the women on the billboards.”
Snapchat Filters Are The Worst
It is apparent that beauty standards have always been shown in an extremely unhealthy way for a long time which has affected millions of women around the world into believing that what they see is the actual truth and what beauty means.
A recent article in HuffPost took a look at the ugly side of Snapchat and Instagram filters and how by smoothening out all our flaws it could lead to people having body dysmorphic disorder.
As per their research, there is also a growing trend of ‘Snapchat Dysmorphia’ where people are bringing these filtered selfies to plastic surgeons and asking for modifications according to the image.
This sheds light on how fake we might be getting with beauty standards reaching unreal levels and the line between reality and filters having gotten completely blurred.
And therefore in such times these kind of posts by people from the beauty industry itself, where they make money out of their looks and talent, reposes a lot of confidence in young people who could get disarrayed by abnormal beauty expectations.
Image Credits: Google Images
Sources: India Today, Buzzfeed, HuffPost India
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