Think of beauty pageants and pictures of Manushi Chillar, Priyanka Chopra or Aishwarya Rai will flash before your eyes. Pageants tell us what ‘beautiful’ looks like.
Or, do they?
But these plus-sized models are prepping for the ramp at the Ms India Curvy 2019, where all body types are welcome. The pageant is a fitting retort to those who believe
only skinny women can be part of beauty contests. “This is our happy place. We’re all so confident over here. There’s no stress, I feel, on anybody. And we all love our bodies here so there’s no one to sit and judge us and even anyone judges us, we are not bothered,” Anita Krishan, Fitness instructor told InUth.
These women are given beauty, diet, and fashion tips and are trained for the world of plus size modelling. “I met so many women who have been demotivated by the society. We decided to organise this pageant where we’ve brought these women together and are training them so that they can build their confidence and they can be seen on the ramp and work as a plus-size model with diffferent brands,” Barkha Nangia, Director Glamour Gurgaon said.
For some, this pageant is a means to let go of moments in the past when they were bodyshamed. Many recounted how they were told to lose weight so as to ‘look beautiful’ and ‘get married’. “I am 32 years old and all my life I believed that I can’t go out and I can’t walk on the ramp. And I could never find clothes my size but that phase has passed now,” Ruchika Agarwal, a homemaker said.
Most women are constantly trying to fit into conventional concepts of beauty, but isn’t it time we promote the idea of being comfortable in our skin.
