 "The heartbreaking story of UP topper Prachi Nigam and the taboo around facial hair")
“I wish I had not topped”… The heartbreaking words were uttered by Prachi Nigam who secured 98.5 per cent in the Class 10 Uttar Pradesh board exams. The school student gained limelight on social media after her marks and her pictures surfaced on social media.
It was not her achievement that grabbed the attention of some social media users but her physical appearance. Soon, trolls started mocking her facial hair, sidelining her feat. But as the negative clamour regarding the minor’s appearance grew, many people on social media came out in Prachi’s support and called out the trolling and obsession with beauty standards for girls and women.
In an interview with BBC News Hindi, Prachi spoke about the online trolling she faced after her results on 20 April. Her shameful bullying has brought the taboo associated with female facial hair to the fore.
Let’s take a closer look.
Prachi Nigam reacts to trolling
Speaking to BBC News Hindi, this year’s Class 10 UP Board topper expressed dismay about trending on social media for her physical appearance rather than her achievement.
“If I had scored lesser marks, I would not have topped and become famous. Maybe that would have been better,” she lamented.
Prachi added that she had been subjected to such comments for a long time and “does not care much” about the situation. “People see girls with hair and feel weird about it because they have not seen this before.”
Impact Shorts
More ShortsOn being trolled, the teenager said, “It obviously feels bad, but people write (on social media) what they think and nothing can be done about it.”
As per an IANS report, the student said her family, friends and teachers did not “criticise” her for her appearance and she “never bothered” about it. “It was only when my photograph was published after the results that people started trolling me and then my attention was drawn to the problem,” she said.
Prachi, who wants to become an engineer, said that it was her marks that would matter eventually and not the “hair on my face”, reported IANS.
Prachi’s mother, Mamta Nigam, told BBC News Hindi she told her not to bother about the trolls. “I encouraged my daughter to ignore the trolls, and to my surprise, many social media users even supported my daughter after a couple of days”.
Prachi’s father, Chandra Prakash Nigam, expressed disappointment at the cyberbullying. “There are all kinds of people in society. We naturally felt bad, but at the same time, we are proud of our daughter for scoring the highest marks,” he said.
According to an NDTV report, Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra spoke to Prachi, encouraging her to concentrate on her studies and achieve her dreams.
Internet backs Prachi Nigam
Several users on X blasted the trolls for making fun of Prachi. Sharing the post of a user who asked why Prachi could not “shave off” her facial hair to “save herself some embarrassment”, journalist Rituparna Chatterjee wrote, “It’s a literal child’s responsibility apparently to doll up for the hungry eyes of grown men.”
She also pointed out men’s hypocrisy who would resort to derogatory name-calling if the girl had been in the makeup and “dismiss all her educational achievements”.
And had this been a girl with makeup on, men would take less than a minute to call her a s*** and dismiss all her educational achievements
— Rituparna Chatterjee (@MasalaBai) April 29, 2024
Another user wrote on X, “The best moment in her life is now a painful memory. Social media can be very toxic and cruel.”
Another comment read, “More than the society, the people who trolled her are the real losers. We are a society filled with losers who are ready to bark at every successful person, more so if that person is a woman.”
Bombay Shaving Company also scored a self-goal by publishing an advertisement that read, “Dear Prachi, They are trolling your hair today, they’ll applaud your A.I.R. tomorrow.”
It further said, “We hope you never get bullied into using our razor”.
Social media users called out the grooming brand for “opportunistic” marketing.
Moment Marketing in garb of a “message.”
— Kumar Manish (@kumarmanish9) April 27, 2024
Can #PrachiNigam ask for brand endorsement fee for using her name and her struggle in a cleverly designed copy by @BombayShavingCo ? pic.twitter.com/6eUwHzrdbS
Why is female facial hair a taboo?
Women have facial hair. But that is not news. It is women’s visible facial hair that subjects them to unsolicited comments and shaming.
Prachi is not the first person to face trolling due to her facial hair. Actor Rashmika Mandanna was reportedly trolled for her selfie where she was seen pouting. However, some users picked on the hair on her chin, asking her to “shave her beard”.
While there have been efforts to normalise women having body hair, the topic of facial hair remains taboo. Hirsutism is the condition that causes “excess hair” growth on the face, chest and neck of women and female-assigned people after puberty.
While many times it is linked to polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) or hormonal imbalance, it can also be a side effect of some medicines, as per Metro.co.uk.
Women’s appearances are often a topic of discussion. From their looks to their clothes, everything is always under scrutiny, especially on the internet. No matter their achievements, the comments on social media always become about their physical features and whether they meet unrealistic beauty standards. For many, women’s body hair does not meet those “standards”.
British influencer Harnaam Kaur, who sports a full beard, was diagnosed with PCOS in her teens and faced bullying for years after growing out her hair. Today, she is a model, social activist and motivational speaker who has taken a vocal stance against bullying.
Speaking at a Stylist’s event in 2019, Kaur said her only beauty rule was “my body, my rules”.
“When it comes to beauty and fashion, I wear what I want. I own my body, and I will do what I want with it. As long as I’m taking care of my emotional and mental welfare, then I will continue to do what I want,” she said.
Model Sophia Hadjipanteli, who has accepted her unibrow and flaunts it unabashedly, told Dazed magazine, “For years people have been taught – trained – to remove facial hair because it is considered ‘ugly’ by mainstream media, and beauty standards in some areas of the world.”
“We are each individuals and being hairless to some people is beautiful and to others their facial hair is stunning. We are told to have a long full head of hair, thick eyebrows, but no unibrow, we are told to have long luscious natural lashes, but to remove our mustaches, to have shiny healthy hair but no sideburns… Beauty standards are inherently obsessive because it is a ‘rulebook’ we have been forced to sign up for,” she added.
Facial hair is also uncomfortable for some as it challenges the idea of the “ideal” beauty standards set for women . It is also a gender issue.
Author Bastian Fox Phelan, as per The Guardian, wrote, “Female facial hair challenges ideas about bodies and their boundaries. It’s not just a cosmetic or a medical issue – it is an issue of gender, because it pushes at binary gender norms. Some people find this confronting; their reactions speak volumes about their discomfort.”
Trésor Prijs, who was one of the first non-binary transgender individuals to be the face of M.A.C Cosmetics, told Dazed magazine that the “taboo and prejudice” linked to female facial hair increases when applied outside of the gender binary.
“There is a singular weight that transfeminine folks carry regarding their facial hair. Within the confines of binary gender facial hair is often perceived as a clear cut manifestation of the masculine beauty ideal.”
Facial hair is not an anomaly and while it is widely accepted in men, why are there double standards for women and those outside the gender binary?
They say beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Well, to add to this, no one owes that “beauty” to the beholder.
With inputs from agencies
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