Has posting nudes on social media become the latest body positivity trend?

Has sending receiving posting nudes on social media become the latest body positivity trend? Photo Courtesy: File pic

Artist Era Tangar had always had a problem with how her body looked. Until recently that is. If you follow Tanger on Instagram (@blindlyfloating), you will be wowed by her sketches, but also her recent posts on body confidence. In one of her posts, she shows off her bare back; in another, she stands in front of a mirror with bare legs; in yet another, she faces the camera wearing a jacket with nothing underneath, her breasts camouflaged by a few illustrations. "It took a lot out of me to put these pictures out there, but I had never been this body confident before. Then I decided, why not?"

Era Tangar was shocked by how many women said her picture inspired them

Tangar, a UP girl who is now based out of New Delhi, put the pictures out and has been flooded with both kinds of messages - lewd ones from men, and congratulatory ones from women who are inspired. "There's a picture in which I face the camera - it's one I didn't even like. It showed me in a way I had never seen myself before. The look in my eyes and my body language were all alien to me. But there was this energy in the picture, and so I put it up. I realised that the positive messages mattered to me more than the bad ones. So, I really don't think I care about what people think. This one's for me."

A picture from her #HateLoss series

Tangar is just one of the many uninhibited people on Indian social media sites, or dating apps, who are not shy about sharing their nude or semi-nude pictures. No wonder #sendnudes is a popular meme topic and an often asked question in the beginning of a relationship or a one-night stand. Instagram users in India would have also seen a steady rise in ordinary (and by that, we mean, non-celebrities) people putting up more revealing pictures of themselves, for a multitude of reasons, some of which are freedom of expression and body positivity. It's become the order of the day.

Samiya Shakir wants people to see what a real body looks like

A New Delhi-based writer, 28, tells us that sometimes people have even refused to take forward a conversation with her on a dating app if she refused to send a nude. "It's okay as long as you don't show your face. You are anyway planning to get naked with this person, so it's okay to give them a sneak peak."

A 27-year-old pilot, who flies between Dubai and Mumbai, often sends d''' pictures to women he meets on dating apps, but only after he has gotten to know them a little better. It's all good, he says, in the world that we live in now. "My d''' pictures also have parts of my upper body because if one has a good body, why not flaunt it?

I just don't do it too often on Instagram or Tinder because you never know who is the person - what if there is a 65-year-old man keeping my pictures for his personal use," he explains. He assures us he is not judgmental of girls who send him nudes right away as long he is the "only one she is sending them to." "Why wouldn't you want to see a chick nude, right?" he says.

Sending nudes on dating apps may be purely sexual in nature, but putting up a nudie on your social media account often becomes about more serious issues. For 30-year-old brand manager Samiya Shakir, putting revealing pictures on her Instagram account (@samshark) is all about letting people know what real bodies look like.

"I have flab and stretch marks, and no thigh gap. It takes courage to do this, but this is what real bodies look like," says Shakir. And though she has been getting sexually explicit messages from men, the messages from women have kept her going. "I believe in being bold and brazen, as I have one life. And women look at me and think 'If she can do it, so can I'. For men, it's sexual, for women, it's invigorating."

Shakir points us out to another interesting Instagram handle called @miss.lingerista. This New Delhi-based writer, who runs a lingerie blog, is all about trying to make Indian women realise that their bodies are beautiful. "I am obsessed with lingerie and so I decided to start this, especially because there are no such initiatives for women in India. At first, it felt weird, but then I decided if I was going to do this, I had to do it whole-heartedly.

It then became very empowering - I feel most confident in my lingerie." The 25-year-old also started a campaign called #HateLoss last year that invited women to share pictures of themselves in lingerie. "It's a pun on weight loss, but it's about losing hate for your body. I have put up almost 33 pictures for this series and more come in every day. I have got many responses from the LGBTQ community as well."

She also addresses the most blatant assumption that she knows people have when they look at anyone sharing nudes - are they just doing it to get attention? "Let me tell you this story - I met a boy on Instagram, who after he met me said, 'I thought were doing this for followers, but now that I have met you, I can see your creativity and positivity shine through. It's about a person being who they are. That's it."

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