The Fault in our Mirrors?

“Just one?!”

My friend exclaimed, almost in horror, when I asked her one thing that she would like to change about her body.

As I interviewed more people and posed this question to them, I found out that this was, in fact, a very common reaction. Body image distress in women is far more common than we’d think. I recalled innumerable discussions with my friends, sometimes in front of the mirror and other times over lunch, where we discussed at length what we would like to change about our bodies.

Body image is a perception we hold of our body and more often that not, a measure of attractiveness. It is closely-linked to our self-esteem and how much we value ourselves, or believe how much we are valued by others.

Female body image is a product of many personal, social, and cultural experiences and often emerges from a desire to have an ‘ideal body type.’ It is not merely co-incidental that most women feel uncomfortable in their own bodies and constantly strive to change it. From size-zero Victoria's Secret models to the expansive, ever-increasing beauty products targeted at women, there is a constant reminder that tells them they’re not good enough.

What is the ideal body type, one may ask? I don’t think there is any. But a quick search on Google will tell you otherwise. You’ll be flooded with airbrushed perfection that is impossible to achieve. What’s more, a quick search will provide you millions of results on how to get that impossible body: WikiHow tells you How to get the perfect beach body (843,896 views), How to get a hot body (1,411,676 views), How to get a model body (257,075 views), How to get a body like Beyonce (720,364 views). And that's only one website.

The problem is certainly larger than our mirrors, and larger than us.

I asked eight women what they would like to change about their bodies and why, in a quest to understand their reasoning behind the same. And I photographed them. Does their insecurity tell more about them or more about us, as a society?

"Lovers, family, and friends have often told me: you have a beautiful face, if only your lower lip wouldn't hang out the way it does!
Oh, only if it wouldn't protrude out, what a perfect picture you would get. So now, I make conscious efforts to pull lower lip inside, to get the perfect look, the perfect picture, and the perfect smile."

"When I burnt my hand, my grandmother exclaimed how I would ever get married!

I was only 12. I couldn't understand the logic. It was absurd to me why it would matter. Whenever I meet people, they always look at me with pity and sympathy when they see my burnt hand. I still don't know why."

"Because stretch marks. Because not beautiful.

I believe my back is not as beautiful or smooth as it is supposed to be which makes me extremely conscious."

"My mother always asks me to wear a dupatta, otherwise all the clothes look too 'sexual'.

My friends think it is great to have big breasts — men love it. But I am not here to cater to the male gaze. Big breasts cause me back pain and other forms of discomfort (sic)."

"I find my nose too big for my face.

Public comments about them have made me even more conscious about it."

"The thought that someone I like might not want to hold

my man-like hands.

My hands have always been veiny and muscular. While men are usually proud of something like this, being a woman means having dainty, manicured fingers. I only noticed this about my body when it was pointed out rather mockingly by one of my classmates in school and being at that age when you first discover your attraction to boys, it made me uncomfortable."

"I have always struggled with my belly. I have always tried to get rid of it.
It was my greatest insecurity. I still continue to find it embarrassing and cover it up to have it be least visibly obvious."