Actor Sayantani Ghosh who has done tremendous work in Bollywopod, particularly on Indian TV, struck a chord with her followers sharing a powerful post on body shaming when suddenly one of her trolls asked her about her bra size during an Instagram live.
“What is this fascination with female breasts?”, she asked, adding, “A thread to end the “size” mentality! I found out today is #WorldHealthDay but you know “Mental Health” has now become the most important aspect of Health! Yes, be FIT with your bodies but don’t forget your MIND!!! It’s high time we Normalise all body types, I am here for this change, are you? Drop a if you agree with me!
She wrote: “Yesterday in one of my interactive sessions someone asked me my bra size! Though I gave the person a befitting reply (which btw a lot of you appreciated) still I felt there is so much more I want to talk about.. Any form of BODY SHAMING is BAD!! Period. But particularly, I struggle to wrap my head around the fact that what is this fascination towards female BREASTS?? As to what size it is?? A cup, B, C or D etc?? And it’s not only the boys, even us girls have this sort of a conditioning!”
The actor wrote: “It’s high time we start loving ourselves and standing up for ourselves because no one else will”.
The question by a troll gave way to a lengthy Instagram post by Sayantani Ghosh where she talked against the sexualisation of the breasts, emphasised the importance of self-love, questioned the entitlement of men who make such remarks and urged women to speak up for themselves.
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Sayantani argued breasts were ‘just another body part’ and questioned the ‘hype’ around them. According to Sayantani Ghosh there are few parts to such mental conditioning and she explained her thesis in her long multi-slide post:
1: Why is it so difficult to accept that it’s just another body part?? I know it has meaning when it comes to a nursing mother or certain purposes of passion, but in the end isn’t it another body part ??? What we don’t realise is that such perspectives or hype over the female breast, throw few of us women, in fact most women get into a very f**ked up head space!” she wrote.
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“2: Where is the concept of Self- acceptance and Self-love ?? Few of us who are well endowed start feeling conscious about it, and start hoping that ‘I wish I was flat or small chested’ and few of us feel the need for implants!!! Remember those times when you went to buy a nice pair of dress and the only reason you didn’t buy it because either your breasts looked too small or big in it ?? It’s like we are never good enough !! We are so uncomfortable even talking about it!!” she wrote.
“3: IT’S TIME TO STOP The next part of my thoughts is, who gives such rights to men?? Why do men feel that you are entitled to look at a woman this way or talk to her this way?? May be it’s us ..yes girls its us for tolerating this sh*t and not speaking up! Often we shy away from facing these men due to a feeling of shame, or avoiding such points so that we don’t create a scene and the list of reasons can go on… I too have kept quiet so many times feeling uncomfortable when I saw a man staring at my breasts!!” she added.
Sayantani going to the nth degree also posed a question to men and asked how they would feel if the tables were turned.
Sayantani concluded her thesis saying that the only size that matters should be of one’s heart.
“In a world where the ‘Human Race’ itself is struggling for its existence, ‘SIZE MATTERS’ — so let’s all have a large heart which is full of love, self-love, self-respect and respect for one another, compassion, acceptance and lots of empathy!!!”
Given the passionate post from Sayantani Ghosh, the trolls query on her bra size brought out the best of Sayantani.