BHOPAL: A CBSE textbook has defined ‘36-24-36’ as the best body shape for females. The textbook also says since this is the best shape for a woman’s body, Miss World and Miss Universe competitions also take this size into consideration. Free Press talked to women of the city and asked them about their first reaction on this odd definition.
All of them laughed at the contrary ideas of banning movies which talk about freedom of women on talking about their sexuality and their sexual fantasies and teaching students such body shamming lessons and things which are objectifying women. They also said it showed the hypocrisy with which problems of women were dealt with. Teaching students about perfect body shape was making girls more prone to be objectified.
Kokila Bhattacharya social worker and co-founder Dylogg Co-working Space
“Knowledge, information, education, inculcated in childhood makes us who we are today. The guardians of ‘schooling’ need to be slammed for propagating regressive, ridiculous standards of ‘ideal’ or ‘perfect figures’. Who are they to decide that? This is 2017, and they better know the difference between wellness awareness and body shaming. Books and textbooks that reek of sexism should not be tolerated at all.”
Anuja Sharma psychology student
“I felt so disgusted. I mean, India has had its history where women have been body shamed to the extent where it became impossible for them to accept themselves for the way they were. Women and girls are always advised to ‘look good’ as if looking good is going to help them succeed. What we fail to understand is body and beauty fade with age. You can be 36-24-36 only till you’re 30-35 and may be till 40. After that your bones will start weakening and there will come a day when you’ll no longer be pretty. Instead of teaching children about the perfect body type, they should be taught to embrace the differences, the imperfections. It’s more important to have a good heart than a perfect body. The children reading those textbooks will always have a perception of woman depending on just her body size.”
Samia Ahmed media student
“Like the world isn’t already hell bent on telling girls what to do and what not to, CBSE will now teach young, impressionable minds what a perfect girl’s shape is. This move will not only make young girls conscious about their body, it will also lead to rise of anorexia, where people will start fearing of gaining weight on eating anything. Everybody is different; we all have different body shapes and sizes. Instead of embracing it, we will now be taught to judge perfection based on what size we are. And we also talk about women safety after judging her with numbers.”
Roudri Bannerjee media student
“I was shocked initially and then I laughed. Where are we heading now? CBSE has always been in controversy for some or the other thing in its content. But this was something unexpected. Imagine the young minds reading this and developing an image of a perfect girl with size 36-24-36. Will they ever respect girls who are more or less than this size? In movies, when lafanga boy talks about a girl, he is shown pointing out the same size and making image with his hand gesture. We consider that sexist or shaming. When students read such things in books they will not consider it bad. Instead they will start judging girls on the same parameter, making such pathetic gestures.”
