“Fat-shaming” – discrimination based on weight – is still common in Singapore and across Asia, activists say, but there are signs the traditional view that only slim can be beautiful is being challenged.
“It just took a longer time for people in Asia to get used to fat acceptance, but it’s growing,” explains the 35-year-old, whose show “Big Brown Girl” shines a light on the prejudices curvy women face when looking for love.
“There’s more representation now.”
While many western countries have seen diverse body shapes in advertising campaigns and fuller-figured models such as Ashley Graham and Paloma Elsesser, Asia is still seen as lagging.
From the 1990s to 2007, Singapore ran its controversial scheme to weigh schoolchildren and send those regarded as overweight to join mandatory fitness programmes – which some feel reinforced prejudices that linger today.
Activist Aarti Olivia Dubey, who has more than 30,000 followers on her Instagram account “curvesbecomeher”, tells AFP: “When it comes to our unconscious biases, when it comes to weight stigma, it’s still very much a problem.”
And while the anonymity of the online world can encourage vitriol from trolls, social media is also helping drive change.
Dubey is among a new generation of influencers on TikTok and Instagram, reaching a global audience with body-positive messaging. She says shows such as “Big Brown Girl” are also a sign society’s attitudes are slowly changing.
‘Different perspectives’
The play, commissioned by national performing arts centre Esplanade, lets the audience choose which dates Ruby goes on out of 10 potential scenarios set in Singapore and overseas.
The comedy is based on the experiences of Nasir, co-writer and director Melissa Sim, and other stories they have gathered over the years.
“When you think of dating or love stories or romance, you don’t automatically think of it from a perspective of a bigger person,” Nasir says.
“When we don’t see someone who is similar to our shape and size and colour, you begin to think maybe these things don’t happen for these sorts of people – but they do.”
The production also touches on the issue of race as Nasir is Malay, living in a predominantly Chinese country.
“Being brown also has its difficulties” in Singapore, she said, and finding love can be “a little bit harder for someone who is a little bit bigger, or comes from a minority group”.
The success of “Big Brown Girl” follows last year’s hit show “The Other F Word”, a one-woman autobiographical show by plus-size actor Miriam Cheong.
The 27-year-old grew up during the period when the Singapore government enforced its Trim and Fit scheme, which saw children undergo physical assessment and ordered to do compulsory, regular exercise if they were considered overweight.
“I thought it was something I deserved because I was a fat kid and I was unfit,” Cheong said. In hindsight, she now feels she was being “shamed” for being overweight.
While officials credited the programme with helping reduce childhood obesity, critics linked it to psychological problems and eating disorders among participants, and it was eventually halted.
Fat-shaming still common
Social attitudes around body positivity are slowly shifting in conservative Asian nations, but significant challenges remain for those who don’t conform to traditionally held beliefs around how women should look.
Four in 10 people said they would not date someone who is overweight, while around 70% believed looks impact professional and personal success, according to a 2019 YouGov poll in Singapore.
In Japan, popular comedian and plus-size actress Naomi Watanabe fronts advertising campaigns for everything from clothing to skincare – but still endures abuse over her size.
The creative director for Tokyo’s Olympic ceremonies, Hiroshi Sasaki, was forced to quit last year after comparing the 34-year-old to a pig.
And in South Korea, plus-size model Vivian Geeyang Kim has campaigned to persuade curvy women they have nothing to be ashamed of.
Kim, who is a US size 10, runs an online clothing shop and publishes a fashion magazine specifically for plus-size women in South Korea – a first in a country where beauty is defined by rail-thin teenage K-pop stars and television actresses whose diets are strictly controlled by their management.
For Dubey, who became a fat-liberation activist after struggling with eating disorders for years, the fact that there are a growing number of shows and discussions around body image and society’s unrealistic expectations is a sign of progress.
But the 40-year-old warns there is still a long way to go. “People will wonder, why is this an issue? Well, because fat-shaming is definitely still one of the most acceptable forms of discrimination,” she said.