Hello beautiful people!
And a Happy Diwali! There’s just so much happening, I’m not sure where to even begin this newsletter. First things first, we were interviewed on NDTV y’all. Tune in to “We the People;” our interview begins at 32mins and 42secs, but honestly watch the whole episode. I think the Dove film for the #stopthebeautytest campaign was evocative, brought up beauty standards as problematic and set a good tone for the conversation.
I’m just delighted this discussion is happening on this platform and of course we are beyond excited that we had a voice here. A big thank you to all of you who have been our staunch support and @gatheraroundsisters for once again being instrumental in making us a part of it. We hope you share this with others!
The one thing in this conversation that kept coming up was the dangers of social media and filters in terms of unrealistic beauty standards. I do see the pitfalls and the negative impact on parts of society. I just feel when there is a lot of light, there is bound to be darkness. The light here for me is the fact that it is so much easier to find community and to be heard. I don’t know if I would have found fat liberation had I not had the internet or social media.
And that brings me to what’s been on my mind recently. Those of you who have been with us on that devil called social media, may have noticed the drastic change in my wardrobe this year given the clothes I found on Myntra in my size. My grandparents told me on my 16th birthday how my days of wearing shorts and “small clothes” were over and how I had wasted the time by being fat and therefore not “able” to wear those clothes. Here I am at 42, wearing shorter and smaller clothes than they thought possible even then. The other thing that happened at 16 was the end of my kathak classes because I was too fat to make a career in dance. Well here’s me at 42 doing dance reels, bitches. So yeah, this Diwali light a candle to be able to flip off anyone who makes you feel not enough. You have, lovely person reading this, the agency to make your life decisions and do whatever you set your mind to.
Have a great Diwali and please also see this fabulous post by my forever favourite Ragen Chastain, one of the first people that inspired me on this journey of fat liberation and whose blog posts are worth several reads!
And that’s it people. Stay in touch with all the conversation by following us on Instagram, also Twitter, Facebook, Medium and we have a website - with all of this and more! And do, do, do share!
Love,
Pallavi (& Ameya)