Shortly after the Uttar Pradesh board results were declared on April 20, the state board’s Class X topper Prachi Nigam found herself being the centre of attention in social media posts.
Unfortunately, it was not because she scored an awe-inspiring 98.5%, but because of her facial appearance.
Sure enough, congratulatory messages poured in but they were far outnumbered and overshadowed by the toxic trolls obsessing over her looks.
Online anonymity has always been a fertile breeding for cyberbullying, but body shaming is what precisely happened in Prachi’s case.
A few days into the results she broke her silence. It is not easy to stay unaffected after being ridiculed over one’s looks by a large section of the people. Yet she responded with her head up, “My marks matter, not my facial hair.”
However, in another interview, the young girl did admit that she wished she hadn’t topped the boards, just to escape all the attention, negativity and toxic trolls. “A few lesser marks in exams wouldn’t have made me popular on social media. And I wouldn’t have faced such trolling,” Prachi reportedly said.
While several netizens and influencers did jump to her rescue, there's no denying the damage that body shaming in any form does.
Prachi Nigam, once again, unfortunately, has neither been the first nor the last. Let alone a regular bright student, even celebrities and their children have been the target of brutal body shaming.
The shape doesn’t matter to those hell-bent on shaming.
Skinny, muscular, plump, petite and of course the ‘fat,’ almost everyone has had to be held and then dismissed against unrealistic standards of beauty.
Way back in 2016, after finding a section of netizens debating whether her underarm pits were airbrushed on a magazine cover, Priyanka Chopra gave one of the smoothest responses to her trolls. “Here’s another pit-stopping picture to add to the debate,” she posted online along with an unfiltered picture of the underarms.
But what truly needs to be done by one and all is a brute response. Like the one dished out by Clueless actor Alicia Silverstone, in 2022, after a paparazzi photo on TikTok referred to her as “fat.”
Not the one to take back or even resort to ‘ladylike’ responses, she immediately gave it back on the same platform by showing the camera a middle finger with the caption, “Damn. I think I look good.”
Yet another actress who has championed body positivity unabashedly has been singer/actor Selena Gomez.
A few months after her public break-up, some even went on to allege that she was always “skinny” while she was dating Justin Bieber.
In 2022, Gomez made yet another clap-back at body shamers while drilling the message out loud through media interviews, “So I be trying to stay skinny, but I went to Jack in the Box and I got four tacos, three egg rolls, onion rings and a spicy chicken sandwich.”
Not specific to any gender, many male actors have also been victims of being called out for physical appearance. Among the very recent instances, actor Ranbir Kapoor has been a subject of ridicule for suddenly “looking aged.”
Actress Vidya Balan has long had a hate-love relationship with the media and for fighting a battle against body shaming.
Having admitted to being immensely affected by the trolls, she said she finally found peace after accepting her own body. “If women try to seek validation from others, they’ll always fall short.”
In B-town again, following the birth of her daughter Aaradhya, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan had to battle beyond the congratulatory messages.
In a 2015 interview with David Frost, the actress replied, “I stepped out in public when I could take time out from my baby, and if I did think it was a big deal, I would have been in hiding or would have done something about it.”
While scrolling down further into posts discussing Prachi Nigam’s achievements and trolls, one post tells her to take it all in her stride. “People will always say something and comment on something, just because they have a keyboard on hand. After all, they didn’t even spare the likes of Aishwarya Rai.”
Hopefully, Prachi herself and many other girls are reading this.
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