Skinny VS Curvy

Stunning Bollywood actress Aishwarya Rai gave birth to her first child back in November 2o11 and it seems that she decided not to join Victoria Beckham and most supermodels in their exclusive ‘Going Back to Pre-Baby Weight in 2 Weeks’ club. And for that, she is being harshly criticized by the media. Let’s see the full story from Daily Mail:

She is a former Miss World, a successful Bollywood star and married to the son of one of India’s best-loved stars. She found international fame in the Hollywood film Bride and Prejudice, and Julia Roberts billed her as the world’s most beautiful woman. Thanks to the notoriety such fame and fortune has brought her, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan has become one of the most admired and revered women in India, and indeed the world. But such fame has come at a cost for the 38-year-old star.

Since the birth of her daughter in November last year, Aishwarya Rai has been open about the fact that she is in no hurry to lose the few extra pounds she gained during her pregnancy. The model and actress, who won the Miss World title in 1994, defended her choice, saying she wanted simply to ‘enjoy motherhood.’

But with the star, who married Abhishek Bachchan, the son of India’s most loved film star Amitabh Bachnan in 2007, tipped for her 10th appearance at Cannes next week, furious speculation is mounting as to how she will look. Commentators have been unkind, lambasting the star for letting her fans down. Many have gone a step further, suggesting the star has a ‘duty’ to her fans to regain her pre-pregnancy figure.

One website posted a video of the star looking less than her usual svelte self, flicking between photographs of her pre-birth, and photos now. Called ‘Aishwarya Rai’s shocking weight gain’  the clip, which came accompanied by elephant sound effects, has been seen more than 500,000 times. Dozens more videos in a similar vein have been posted, each with viewing figures in the tens or hundreds of thousands.

Comments left after the video prove that many of those watching have little sympathy for Aishwarya.

‘She is a Bollywood actress and it is her duty to look good and fit,’ one said. Another added: ‘She needs to learn from people like Victoria Beckham who are back to size zero weeks after their delivery.’

It has opened up a debate in the country, and beyond, about the attitudes held towards women in the public eye.

‘Aishwarya is like a goddess,’ said showbusiness columnist Shobhaa Dé in the New York Daily News by way of explanation. ‘She is held up as the ideal of beauty and so there is an expectation on her to look perfect at all times. The role models being held up are Angelina Jolie and Victoria Beckham, but our body frames are different – we have wider hips and curves – so this whole business of looking desperately skinny two weeks after giving birth is a western import.’

Cinema professor Shohini Ghosh added that women in India were up against an almost impossible task. ‘There is a glorification of motherhood in India and Indian cinema,’ he told the paper. ‘But people are confused because they don’t know whether to glorify Aishwarya in her new motherhood or lament that she is not looking like a runway model.’

Pictured: Since there are no post-baby pics available, here’s Aishwarya while pregnant in 2011. Check the video for pictures and share your thoughts!

Hot mom Jessica Alba (31) recently opened up to iVillage about feeling sexy post-babies, her weight and body image – let’s see what she says:

It’s really amazing how your perspective shifts and your definition of sexy evolves once you become a mother. Before having Honor and Haven, I was super-critical of my looks and worried more about inevitable changes to my body. I couldn’t even say the word “sexy” to describe myself without feeling funny and awkward.

But becoming a mom has definitely made me feel more confident and secure than I ever did in my 20s. Even though I can’t ever get down to my pre-baby weight before having Honor, my jeans don’t zip up the same way, and things just hang differently (all moms know how that goes!), I feel completely comfortable in my skin and my idea of perfection has changed. I don’t really care about my body image anymore because it just doesn’t matter now that I have children. Instead, I focus on my health, feeling strong, and making sure I’m up and running so I can spend that all-important time with the girls.

Having babies also helped me embrace my sexuality. Up until then, I was quite shy about it. But once I experienced how incredible and amazing it was to create a life, it was empowering. Now, I feel freer to express myself and just be me. Through motherhood I really came into my own and, for me, feeling sexy is all about this type of comfort, confidence, and true happiness.

… says Jessica.

Pictured: Jessica’s weight before and after having kids.

See more ‘vintage’ shots of Jessica from 2007 next!

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Many of our visitors notices that Rihanna’s figure went from slim to slimmer recently. The reason? Apparently, the singer has been on a diet since her father called her ‘fat’ a while back. From an interview with Heat Magazine:

‘I actually thought she was a little fat last time I saw her.’

‘When I saw her this time, I thought she was back to her normal size. I used to joke with her, “Robyn, you’re getting too fat!” But I think she’s fine, I think she looked excellent, as everyone saw, at the Grammys. She’s dieting, she’s working out.’

… said Rihanna’s father, Ronald Fenty.

In unrealted news, Rihanna’s father also made the following comment on Rihanna’s ex, Chris Brown:

‘Chris is a nice guy and everyone is entitled to make a mistake in their life – God knows how many I’ve made.’

Hmm… what do you guys think of his remarks?

Pictured above:

Left: Rihanna back in August 2011 / Right: A slimmer Rihanna these days.

Pictured below: a topless picture Rihanna posted on Twitter recently.

Lady Gaga attended a Young Women’s Conference at Los Angeles’ Brentwood School a few days ago and with this occasion, she opened up about her past struggles with bulimia – from Huffington Post:

On Her Bulimic Past: “I used to throw up all the time in high school. So I’m not that confident. And maybe it’s easier for me to talk about it now because I don’t do it anymore. I wanted to be a skinny little ballerina but I was a voluptuous little Italian girl whose dad had meatballs on the table every night. I used to come home and say, ‘Dad, why do you always give us this food? I need to be thin.’ And he’d say, ‘Eat your spaghetti.’ It’s really hard, But … you’ve got to talk to somebody about it.”

Weight Is Still an Issue: “Every video I’m in, every magazine cover, they stretch you’ they make you perfect. It’s not real life. I’m gonna say this about girls: The dieting wars have got to stop. Everyone just knock it off. Because at the end of the day, it’s affecting kids your age. And it’s making girls sick.”

On Bulimia’s Effects: “It made my voice bad, so I had to stop. The acid on your vocal chords — it’s very bad. But for those of you who don’t sing, you maybe don’t have that excuse until it’s too late. It’s very dangerous.”

… says Lady Gaga, pictured here in a shoot by Terry Richardson.

What do you guys think about her message?

On her look at the Paris premiere of “One For The Money”  on January 31 (picture above):

‘It’s so uncomfortable. You are just never happy with the way you look.

‘No matter how hard I tried or how little I ate that whole day hoping my stomach would stay flat, it doesn’t matter.’

… said Katherine.