Live audio-social app Mentza to host a mega debate on body shaming

The conversations cover an array of issues related to body shaming. The finale will take place on the 15th of March

New Delhi (India), March 9: To break free from unrealistic beauty standards, Mentza, a live-audio conversational platform for growth-oriented people, is organizing a mega debate from March 9 to 15, which will cover an array of issues related to body shaming.

Through short 20-minute discussions, Mentza will facilitate people coming from different walks of life to share their stories on body positivity and instances of when they were made to feel uncomfortable about their bodies.

The live-audio conversational platform is made up of various communities on different subjects such as ‘entrepreneurship’, ‘personal growth and leadership, ‘behaviour and social change’, ‘marketing’, ‘design and innovation’, ‘travel, food and lifestyle’, ‘students’, ‘art, culture and media’, ‘parenting’ and ‘personal finance and investing.

The seven-day mega debate will be conducted as a part of Mentza’s ‘Sports & Wellbeing Community’. While elimination rounds will occur throughout the week, the finale will take place on March 15. On March 16, finalists will share their personal stories concerning body positivity and body shaming.

Talking about unrealistic beauty standards, Garima Malik, a brain and body fitness trainer on Mentza said, “For males, the ideal masculine body type is often believed to revolve around strength, muscles, and power. In contrast, women and feminine body types are often believed to be better off as petite, small, and dainty. Big is associated with maleness; small is associated with femininity. But do these generalisations make any sense at all?

“In a world that is obsessed with labelling people’s bodies, there is no dearth of opinions on what the ideal body type is or what constitutes health or fitness. We routinely experience arbitrary stereotypes and comparisons with unrealistic beauty standards. So, should one say ‘fat’ or ‘overweight’? ‘Thin’, ‘slim’ or ‘underweight’? Are these labels acceptable descriptions or superfluous comments that one can do without? Are they insults that weigh down self-esteem, or can they push people to be healthier?”, she added.

Speakers at Mentza’s mega debate will discuss all of this as well as connected questions such as do we expect physical trainers to always be thin or muscular? Is skinny shaming ok if fat-shaming is not? And Do women deal with body shaming more than men?

“While this knowledge exists almost everywhere, it is never spoken about,” said Mentza’s co-founder, Jayal Shroff. 

“This tacit knowledge is essentially the experiential wisdom that people have gathered over a period of time while performing their various jobs, as well as through their life experiences. For these conversations on body shaming, we have brought together experts from the fields of sports, health and fitness, and psychology to weigh in,” he added.

Co-founder Tapasi Mittal said: “Mentza distinguishes itself from other audio-social platforms not only by limiting every conversation to 20 minutes but also by dint of its focus on learning, informally, from experts and people who know their subject areas well. We are proud to be able to provide this platform for democratic discussions on issues and topics that matter to people. Our debate on body-shaming is one such example.”

The judges for the debate will be Manik Dhodhi, Director, Real Estate, Adidas India Marketing Pvt Ltd; Ayushi Shroff, UCLA Graduate, Bachelor of Science in Human Biology and Society; and Dr. Shilpa Sharma, Psychologist.

The debate is being held by Mentza in collaboration with Dare2Compete and will be hosted by Archana Bora, Scientist and Researcher, Filmmaker Neeraja Rao, and Karuna Grover, health and wellness coach.