ABS-olute
Wednesday, 5th December, 2007
We could be called a nation of paradoxes, not just in matters of demographics and birth, but also girth. Particularly this season, for it’s seen not just the baring of bellies but tummy truths as well. Stomach this. Nearer home, a recent report uncovered rather uncomplimentary facts about the bellies of Punjabi belles: the state has the highest number of obese women.
Another survey of Indian cops had unflattering things to say about khaki paunches.
But in sharp contrast to these, out there, has been a flat belly that takes the cake, or rather the beefcake. Yes, we’re talking of the six-pack abs of Shah Rukh Khan that flexes up his drool quotient each time it’s flaunted in the multiplexes.
On the face of it, there couldn’t be better inspiration for our population beleaguered by the bulge. What a fitness feat he’s achieved at 40 plus! But wait. All this belly baring appears to have an under side too. The fab-abs overexposure has exposed some fitness concerns as well.
For one, isn’t King Khan’s over-40-wanting-to-look-30 sinewy, new avatar perpetuating an image that’s rather incongruous for that age? Or, take for that matter the 40-something Shekhar Suman’s chiseled chest. True, professional compulsions may have driven SRK to do a Bruce Lee for a role, or Shekhar Suman to reinvent himself for an album or TV reality show.
Hollywood hunks do it all the time. But our middle-aged Bollywood lads haven’t pulled it off too well seeing that both their faces are looking more like squeezed, pulp-less mango kernels after pumping all that iron. Their overnight flab-flossing makeovers don’t seem to be sending out signals that are as robust as the bronzed-buff images would have us believe.
Perfect pecs, Toned torsos. Agreed, they look great. But does this image hard sell tell the entire story: of the booster shots or the punishing schedules that go into carving out those physiques? When celebrities reinforce such fads, it acquires aspirational overtones for their fans, and the society at large.That makes it tricky terrain. It can push the public to mindlessly seek, if not attain, shortcuts to fitness. If SRK can do it in three months and Shekhar Suman in 10, why can’t they? Imagine if our 40-plus, potbellied populace was to take similar crash courses to get that lean look!
As it is, the size-zero fetish that’s interestingly consuming the Indian hunks now is symptomatic of an affliction increasingly assailing our society. It smacks of a growing obsession for squeezed-perfect bodies in utter defiance of age or anatomical limitations. An overstretching of the stretch-ups craze, that’s what it looks like.
The rising emphasis on body image says the Eating Disorders Association (EDA), UK, is leading people to make a dash for running machines and weight rooms more often than they should resulting in compulsive exercising, And this obsession has its flip side.
The EDA warns that a growing number of adults are threatening their health with a dangerous combination of weight watching and compulsive exercising.
This, it says, can push gym fanatics to the edge of serious eating disorders such as anorexia.
So, look beyond those fab-abs. Fast and furious isn’t the healthiest message emanating from those brush-stroked images of our style icons. That too in a nation where much of the population needs nutritional, not anatomical push-ups. It can create a population of what is termed as "stressorexics", those lycra-clad professionals who hit the gym with too much vengeance. "Stressorexia is a product of a perfectionist society". People don’t want to look "normal" but "special" nowadays. Maybe, the frenzy for the treadmill is turning into overkill.
