Having strong muscles is not a man’s domain: Taapsee Pannu

MUMBAI: ‘Girls should only do cardio, lifting is for guys’, ‘You won’t look like a girl if you build muscles’ — it’s 2021 and women are still facing such stereotypical fitness-related remarks. Actor Taapsee Pannu is completely against the common notion that having a muscular physique is a man’s domain.

“Unfortunately, there’s still a stereotypical outlook towards women’s fitness. It’s extremely sad. Who has made this rule that women can’t have muscles? I find this to be a big myth which all of us must have heard and maybe in the beginning when I was trying to lose weight at a point in life, I also heard that ‘just do cardio and don’t do weightlifting’. I paid attention to that stupid advice because I did not know any better and I was not that open-minded at that time that I would question it, but slowly with time I realised it’s absolutely wrong,” Taapsee told ANI.
According to her, it’s baseless to body shame any woman for having muscles.

“Why do people put too much emphasis on a certain kind of a body? A woman’s body will not become a man’s body after building muscles. It will still be a woman’s body because it’s shaped in a different way. I really find this type of stereotyping baseless. I want this notion to be broken because having strong muscles is not a man’s domain. Period,” Taapsee emphasised.

Like many others, Taapsee also recently fell prey to body shaming. A section of social media users trolled her for her physical transformation for ZEE5’s film ‘Rashmi Rocket’, in which she essays the role of a professional sprinter who is forced to undergo gender testing. Many described her transformation as manly.

Talking about the same, she said, “People would have drooled over my look if I had put up a bikini picture. There would be comments like ‘whatta body’, ‘so hot’. For me, the body that’s worth appreciating is the one that has been worked hard on. I would rather appreciate someone who has worked very hard on the body and whenever you work hard on your body, you do have certain defined muscles in your body which would show up… I would rather appreciate that body than someone who’s just blessed by God to be thin.” (ANI)