Yes boys and girls, Ileana is imperfect and totally 'normal'

Here is a weird type of fake fitness/body image thing I see.

After getting back to back notifications and even ‘news’ bits about Ileana’s latest instagram post, I opened the news story up to see her go off about how ‘imperfect’ she is. I was truly moved. Like it made sense to know how much stress celebrities put themselves through. But when I opened the picture after reading through all that ‘news’, this is what I see:

A picture of her in a bikini, somewhere on a boat, in black and white filter, shot by a professional. With the exception of her messy hair and maybe some loose skin on her neck, this is picture perfect. Many Insta models would kill to have a picture like this.

This is an insult to any normal Indian who has struggled with inferiority issues and has been body shamed at some stage through his/her life. Especially women. To the thousands of 30 plus ladies and gents who are working out in the few hours or minutes they get every day amidst their daily grind, this is a joke. All of them know that a physique like this is damn hard to achieve.

You don’t get a body like this by letting go or being imperfect. You need to spend hours at the gym, stay on a strict diet and actually de-stress by taking breaks from harsh work. For those who have shopfloor work or outdoor jobs with regular exposure to the sun, this is actually impossible. Celebrities seem to have different standards. Their point is that this is their ‘normal’. This is them boldly showing us their 'flaws'. My god, the narcissism!

To add insult to injury, all her recent photos are her showing off flawless skin, caked with layers of make-up and loaded with shiny filters. I get that this is PR work, especially since paid ‘news’ is being written about this BS... but still. The least she could have done was post a normal photo.

I have nothing against Ileana BTW. I’ve watched her movies. She is gorgeous, she can act, dance like a dream and has every right to do all this and more. This just made me realize that she too could be just as fake as anyone else in the industry.