Vidya Balan says desirability has nothing to do with body type

It is multidimensional 

    Top actor Vidya Balan is spot on when she observes that desirability has more to do with how one feels and projects oneself than with body type. There's no single universal formula for desirability or attractiveness. Remember the oft-repeated adage: Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder? It is, after all, a subjective issue and cannot be reduced to a particular body form or distinctive facial features. Instead of trying to steamroller varying perceptions of beauty and sexuality into a boring and predictable form, women and men should celebrate their individuality. 

    As Balan says there's too much pressure, especially on women, to conform to a particular physical prototype. While such a homogeneous concept of beauty may suit the interest of the beauty industry or burgeoning weight loss clinics, it goes against the grain of individuality and diverse forms and perceptions of beauty, aesthetics or sexuality. The present hankering for size zero is, for example, a passing phase which will give way to some other fashion tomorrow. While fitness matters, it makes no sense to feel inferior or be consumed by guilt just because one doesn't belong to a particular body type. 

    Not only should women and men feel comfortable with the way they look, regardless of size, they 

should strive to retain their individuality. Selfconfidence, composure and personality go a long way in increasing one's attractiveness. And those things are well within our grasp. One should, of course, strive to maintain a certain level of fitness – not just for health reasons, but also because it enhances self-confidence and feeds into attractiveness. But beyond that, it's foolish to reduce multidimensional attributes such as beauty, desirability and sexuality to one or a few body types. 

One can't deny biology Anil Thakkar 

    There is an eyewatering hypocrisy to Vidya Balan – a Bollywood superstar, current queen bee and stunningly attractive by any standards – going on about how body type and an individual's size don't matter, that everyone is equally 

acceptable as they are. Would she be where she is today if she didn't look the way she did? Would anyone care to pay any attention to her views on physical beauty? 

    Too many people are afraid to say it out loud for fear of being labelled politically incorrect – but beauty matters. Size matters. Weight matters. And the general perception of a person's attractiveness most definitely matters in just about every sphere of life, from the personal to the professional. Any number of studies have proved that attractive people have it better at the workplace, whether it's for promotions or pay raises. And there have even been studies showing that babies still at a pre-verbal stage prefer people with attractive faces. 

    It's not difficult to understand why. There are any number of linked biological and cultural factors from our collective past that have shaped our preferences 

    when evaluating the physical 

    attractiveness of a person. A 

    certain body shape might indicate that a woman would be more likely to have children without risk to herself or the infant, for instance. Likewise, physical health would be linked to social standing, wealth, access to nutritious food and the like. These factors from earlier, harder ages are now ingrained in us as the standards by which we judge people. But even if we don't accept such an explanation for it judging people by their looks, even before they can get a word in edgeways, is a fact of life. So let's not deny the existence of those standards altogether. Biology and history can't be ignored.