Yukti Bhagchandani, a Mumbai-based mass media student, recently did a photo project for class in which women stated a frequent criticism they hear about their bodies. "Young women around me are always heard complaining about their tiny bodily flaws and how they thought they were so far from being perfect in terms of their physical attributes," Bhagchandani told BuzzFeed.
"This wasn’t as much a result of self-scrutiny than it was the result of the kind of insensitive comments that were thrown at them, most of the times, in a manner of jokes, and not by men alone.
Through this project, I wanted to put across the message that our reasons for being unhappy about our bodies are more trivial than we think and we must first really learn to be grateful for being given a full body," Bhagchandani added.
1. "God, look at her laugh! Her stomach fat is shaking like jelly."
2. "Hey, I agree that curves are in demand, but you don't need to develop extra ones out there."
3. "I overheard them say, 'We wouldn't know if she's lying on her back or her stomach'."
4. "When I wore a headband to school for the first time, a friend from across the hall shouted out, 'Damn, your forehead is all that is visible in your entire face! You might want to cover that up with bangs'."
5. "My god, you resemble a raccoon more than a human with such dark circles under your eyes!"
6. "My first boyfriend cringed away from holding my right hand because of my birthmark."
7. "Hey there! What do you have stored in your camel hump?"
8. "I don't think you should buy a dress. It won't cover your flabby elephant thighs."
9. "They laughed and joked, 'She's from the labourers' clan'."
10. "Oh, I am not going to get playful with her. She's got 'heavy wrestler' arms!"
11. "Buy a closed shoe for your cracked, old looking feet."
12. "When I was in school and my friends saw my birthmark for the first time, they got scared and started gasping. I ran to the bathroom as soon as I reached home that day and put soap on it and kept rubbing it till my skin turned red."
13. "One day I broke my tooth and stopped opening my mouth to laugh. Another day, I stopped looking at my face in the mirror when someone saw my pimples and commented, 'Pimples are a sign of a dirty mind you know!'"
14. "First I was made fun of because I was fat. Later, because I lost weight and developed stretch marks."
