Unfazed by derision, woman proudly sports moustache in southern India as shining example of body positivity
by Sudipto MaityBeing beautiful is about loving oneself, how one truly is. There might be multiple detractors and a lot of derision in store but some well and truly understand what self-awareness and acceptance look like. Remember Harnaam Kaur, a British Sikh woman who flaunted her full-grown beard with pride, raising awareness about body positivity?
In another such incident, a woman from southern India’s Kerala has come to light for proudly sporting a moustache. Named Shyja, she is a 35-year-old from the Kannur district of the state.
Shyja began to have the wisps of hair on her lips, thicken to become a moustache around five years ago and she says that she never felt the need to remove it, despite getting her eyebrows threaded regularly. As a matter of fact, she has come to accept the moustache as part of her being and says “can’t imagine living without it.” A video has emerged of her proudly twisting one end of her moustache, much like what many men do.
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This expectedly didn’t fit within the society’s beauty standards and hence, Shyja have had many people around who have asked her to do away with the moustache. This also came with a lot of criticism and derision from people on the streets and on social media.
But Shyja has stayed unfazed despite all of this and chosen to accept and love herself the way she is, not conforming to the standards of beauty that the society upholds. Kaur, as earlier mentioned, is a Guinness World Record holder for being the youngest woman to wear a full-grown beard. She has been one of the main voices around body positivity and self-acceptance.
Kaur has spoken about how she came to love herself and her facial hair in the face of bullying from people around her. Shyja too, is quite like her.
The Kerala woman says that she has had multiple health problems, leading to surgeries which has strengthened her resolve to live the way she wants to. A shy girl in her childhood, she experienced freedom after moving to Tamil Nadu after her marriage where she would walk along to get things from the shop at night, unlike how she could do back at her place.
Yes, not everyone has been critical of her. Her daughter often compliments her moustache by saying that it looks good on her and Shyja is trying to pass on her positivity to the little one. Her friends and family members too, have been supportive of her choices and to her, nothing else matters.