Malaika Arora Got Trolled Because Her Stretch Marks Were Visible. But This Time, Women Came To Her Defense
I’ll admit I’ve had a pretty hard time realising how normal and natural stretch marks are and it took me some time to embrace my own. That’s how it is, right? Even the most common and completely natural body imperfections seem like a big deal because of the superficial beauty standards have been set by the society and fed to us. Most women have it and while some are ashamed of it and try to hide it, others are put down are shamed by others for flaunting it. A lot of celebrities too have them and most of them belong to the latter category.
Regardless of how flawless we assume them to be, they too struggle with acne, dark circles and stretch marks. Having a platform like Instagram offers celebrities an opportunity to embrace their imperfections in all their glory and inspire million young girls and women to own up to their scars. However, every time an actress gets real about her flaws, she is mercilessly trolled and shamed for it. Malaika Arora is one such celebrity who is an ultimate advocate for self-love. She has paraded her wrinkles, stretch marks and even armpit hair multiple times and each time got trolled for it.
She recently got papped while on her way to the gym, nothing unusual for Malaika. We live for those pictures since that’s the only thing that makes us leave the couch and head to the gym too. I mean, she is 40 and the fittest celebrity in Bollywood and I, 26, struggle to get up after sitting for too long. Anyway, in her photos, her tiger stripes aka pregnancy stretch marks were quite visible which she might or might not have intended to show. But it sure gave the trolls a reason to put the woman down. The comments on her photo ranged from age shaming her to all sorts of name calling. However, the interesting thing is that some people, rose to shield the actress and called out troll for spewing hate on her.
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Also Read: Kylie Jenner Says Her Post-Pregnancy Stretch Marks Are A Gift And It’s The Most Positive Way To Look At Them
“Malaika doesn’t shy away from her stretch marks while posing in her gym wear. Stretchmarks are natural and many women get them post pregnancy.” One user wrote, “So, what was the big deal.” Another user called out the hypocritical behaviour of the trolls stating that the same people who slam Malaika for having stretch marks and ageing gracefully hype up Hollywood celebrities for the same. She wrote, “The number of people criticizing her targeting her and bullying her making fun of the age are the same people who praises jennifer aniston jennifer lopez madonna.. height of hypocrisy [sic].” This is true though.
One user also commented, “Why should she be shy ? I am a mother of 2 kids and I love my Stretchmark remember our body different not damaged.” We often forget that these are actually most empowering beauty marks that remind you of the changes your body went through, be it because of shedding some kilos which you worked hard for or weight gain because of a pregnancy. They are tiger stripes that remind you how strong you and your body are.
Most of these positive comments came from women who shut the trolls up. We are glad to see that at least some women are reclaiming their love for these “imperfections” that are basically perfect in every sense and defending other women too. Maybe it’s time we stop putting women down, celebrity or not, for celebrating their flaws? Also, can we do that not just for stretch marks but also for acne, pigmentation, dark circles, body fat, rolls and cellulite that are equally and completely normal too? ‘Cause, that’d be great!
