Even concepts of beauty are reshaped. Indian society traditionally favors more generously proportioned women than demanded in the modeling and beauty-queen business. Indeed, former Miss Universe Sushmita Sen admits having had her breasts enhanced to fit that ideal when she sought a showbiz career in the mid-1990s. But over the past couple of years, skinny actresses like Urmila Matondkar and Preity Zinta have become very popular. And that, he says, is the impact of freely available international cable television and the winning beauty queens.
Some parents find the new images deeply troubling.
Bombay school teacher Carmen D'Souza, for one, frets that teenage girls in urban centers are almost obsessed with becoming models and beauty queens. It is also an imported, alien standard of beauty and we fear that children may risk anorexia trying to stay thin. Feminists' comparisons of beauty contests with cattle markets don't make much of an impression on most young women. But an increasing number are making lifestyle choices based on their careers rather than home and family. A Miss India finalist in 1997, the New Delhi native is now a professional model.