Size Zero Mania

By Ranjan Yumnam *

Watching the tired-looking and malnourished stick models walking the ramps on the FTV and now increasingly on Indian fashion shows, I feel we all normal people are not normal anymore. Reason: compared to them, our bods are looking like fat gunny bags of excess weight of junk and oil, while these nubile twenty somethings, often wearing nothing, are so svelte and light that they might fly away should a strong wind blow past.

Are they beautiful? That depends on the notions of beauty that we have, and those notions fluctuate from time to time, and from society to society. Currently, the fad in the glamour world is on attaining the unattainable and so-called Size Zero, i.e., measurements of chest-stomach-hips from 30-22-32 inches to 33-25-35 inches!

Hello, are you kidding?

This size is so unrealistic for a normal person to attain that not even one percent of the adult humanity would be able to maintain that size for long, if at all she could starve her way to that body vitals. And it would be dangerous to attempt to acquire the Size Zero body structure—and thank God, Size Zero applies only to the female of our species. (One tip for Size Zero aspirants: stitch your mouth so that you can't eat food).

But this ridiculous ideal of female beauty is spreading a like a viral fever among the fashionistas, and fashion bibles and even health magazines are hailing it as the new symbol of ultimate beauty and glamour. One Bollywood actress even quipped, "Women with small bre**** have large hearts". A very sweeping comment to be sure that illustrates the hysteria of size zero madness. Sorry Pamela, your days are punctured.

As I said earlier, the ideals of beauty keep changing. Our most popular pin-ups were the well endowed and voluptuous seductress dancing in rain, now the reigning queens of fantasy world are the anorexic thin sticks wrapped in sarongs. My guess is soon ultra slims will be out of favour and the healthy, if not chubby, beautiful gorgeous women will be back again in our TV screens and mobile phones.

Having said that, what you see in the magazines and ads are not always the actual representation of the models or the stars. In almost all cases, their pictures would have been digitally enhanced to depict a more polished, smooth and flawless skin. Even uncharitable parts of the body might have been radically altered using Photoshop's many tricks.

The advertising agencies mainly resort to such enhancing methods, taking it to the extreme edge—for instance; they would sculpt the nose, tummy, curves, and what not of a model beyond recognition. This may be all right in a film. But advertisements are supposed to highlight the true qualities of a product they are hawking.

And when images of the products or models purportedly using the products are manipulated to exaggerate their worth or effectiveness, that amounts to cheating the consumers. Take fairness creams, for instance; do they really make us fair and launch us into becoming airhostesses or news anchors.

The bigger issue is not the breach of trust of the public (ultimately it is the vendors that are going to lose by fooling the consumers anyway), but the effects of unrealistic ads on the teenagers and the self-esteem of millions of ordinary people like us whose photographs are not airbrushed and do not have the luxury of hiring a personal beauty assistant are considerable.

France is considering a legislation that would require the advertisers to label a warning on images that have been retouched stating as much so that the viewers do not unnecessarily crave for the artificial flawless skin and the curvaceous bods of the models shown on the billboards and magazines.

I am in favour of such a legislation because the effects of retouching photographs like smoking may be injurious to health because after watching them young boys and girls may start crash dieting and develop eating disorders to emulate their favourite Photoshop-mutilated stars, not knowing that their images have been doctored.

I don't know about you, but I am sick of seeing manipulated and enhanced photographs of models and stars that look like plastic mannequins. Show me the wrinkles, eye bags, breakouts and other minor flaws that make us human and normal, not some avatars straight out of cast moulds. As JD Salinger of Catcher in the Rye fame, who died this week, might have said, "they all look goddam phoney."

Eastern Stars

Eastern Dark is one band I have begun to develop a secret admiration for, not only for their musical talent but for their near perfect diagnosis of the socio-political realities of Manipur. Their lyrics reads like an essay in an anthropological work though they are a bit lengthy for songs. That's not my complaint but a compliment to the birth of a genre in songwriting. This particular characteristic of Eastern Dark lends itself to the journalist-turned-rocker-turned-banker-turned rocker—Lwungdrayn M. Heisnam, the frontman of the band.

All songs in their new album, Kangjei, are hard-hitting, no-holds-barred musical commentaries on the situation in Manipur and if you are a fan of the usual romantic songs about pining and winning in love, then this one is not for you. But then, their songs would strike you beyond the mundane affairs of heart and speak directly to your patriotic alter ego and the idea of being a Manipuri and being in Manipur with all its ills and murky dangerous pitfalls.

I have always been ambivalent about the sustainability of local rock bands performing English language gigs with all the aesthetics of western rock groups complete with long hair, torn jeans, skull printed tee shirts and pretentious phoreners' accent. I hate it.

You can never be the original rock band, you will be at best a look-alike, and at worst a bad copycat of western rock bands. Eastern Dark is a huge relief and brings a whiff of freshness and originality in the rock scene of Manipur by performing in the vernacular language, easy to understand and relate to.

Sample this from their new album, Kangjei:

Bobok na hai mapan thokkanu
Pupu na hai konthong lan-ganu
Pupu bobok nungshibi
Iyumsini eina kirisay
Lambida chatlay adum kee
Office ta leiray adum kee
Sumangda leplay adum kee
Imungda phamlay ikeeda kee
Phamungda tumlay hennadum kee
Kadaida leiraga hinggadoino

Ranjan Yumnam

* Ranjan Yumnam, presently an MCS probationer, is a frequent contributor to e-pao.net. He can be contacted at ranjanyumnam(at)gmail(dot)com. This article was webcasted on January 31, 2010.