Priyanka Chopra: The world needs to be trained to see beauty differently

by SAMHITA MUKHOPADHYAY

PUBLISHED: FEB 12, 2019 | 15:17:40 IST

Priyanka Chopra talks about the beauty pageant beginning to her globe-trotting career, and shares her thoughts on beauty, inclusivity and empowerment

Priyanka-Chopra
Image: Daniel Jackson

The first time I heard of Priyanka Chopra, my father had informed me that Miss India had become Miss World 2000. It was official: A South Asian woman (and not even the first) had been declared the most beautiful woman on the planet. Having immigrated to the United States and often longed for their lives back home, my parents celebrated whenever they saw a South Asian on the international stage.

I wasn’t quite so ecstatic. Really? I thought. Women can be doctors, engineers, lawyers, even the president, and we’re celebrating a pageant winner? But the knee-jerk judgement I was verbalising masked something deeper: A late bloomer who had evolved into an awkward 21-year-old, I had no firsthand experience with having my brown skin, black hair, and dark eyes measured against Eurocentric standards of beauty and deemed “beautiful.” And even through my veneer of righteous feminist indignation at the news of Chopra’s win, I couldn’t help but feel more visible.

“We’re twinning, again!” a voice yells at me from halfway across the top floor café at Bergdorf Goodman.

Priyanka Chopra is making her way towards me when a table full of women stop her—one claiming it’s her birthday— to ask for a quick selfie. Chopra obliges, flashing the seasoned smile of someone who’s been recognisably famous for nearly two decades.

In a cream-coloured top that reveals the tops of her shoulders and a maxi-length beige skirt with a high slit, she looks like a literal goddess. Thick gold hoops peek out from under her voluminous, balayage-highlighted hair. She’s wearing a berry lip and a purplish-red, shiny eyelid and when I compliment her appearance, she informs me that she’s just come from a shoot.

Yeah, twins, I think to myself. That’s exactly what we are. But, I laugh because I’m also wearing an off-white silk top, a berry lip, and gold hoops. This isn’t the first time Chopra and I have met, and the reason she’s calling us twins is because it’s also not the first time we’ve worn the same outfit. The last time, we both showed up in head-to-toe red with Ruby Woo lips to match, but Chopra simply did some variation of a “yas, queen!” and we both giggled.

Miss World

Image: Daniel Jackson

Of the many disarming qualities she has, the most obvious (and commented upon) is her stunning good looks. Less talked about is her dynamic presence and how inclusive she is: Priyanka Chopra is the kind of beautiful person who makes you feel like you are part of the club. Within a minute of sitting with her, I am at ease. She’s fun, charismatic and smart and she defies every stereotypical term that is (mistakenly, yet commonly) synonymous with the words “beauty queen.”

The world first met Chopra when, at the age of 18, she became Miss India, and then Miss World. But competing in pageants wasn’t her original dream: “I wanted to be an engineer,” she informs me. But she realised quickly that was not the path for her. “Looking back now, I should have seen the signs that girl, you can’t pass a reflective surface without looking at yourself. You’re not going to be an engineer.”

It was her mother who sent a set of glossy photos of her daughter to the Miss India pageant committee. Chopra wasn’t crazy about the photos, “[My mother] thought those soft-focus pictures were real cute. They weren’t,” Chopra says, laughing, then informing me that the photos had recently been leaked and gone viral.

They were clearly cute enough, or at least the subject of the images was: Months later, Chopra was crowned Miss World. One of the primary, and most obvious, criticisms of pageants is the overt focus on the physical appearance of women and girls. But Chopra’s experience is different. When I ask why, exactly, someone might enter a beauty pageant, she tells me that in India the context for beauty pageants is totally different. The UK-based competition wasn’t just looking for physical beauty, she says; they were looking for women who were “fun, outgoing, progressive, bold.” And, ultimately, it was through this that Chopra became invested in issues that have a direct impact on women and girls, which led to her charity work with UNICEF.

Not just a pretty face

Image: Daniel Jackson

It’s also clear that Miss World was a jumping-off point for Chopra’s now formidable career in entertainment: She’s starred in numerous films and a TV show, and she’s working on her first book, a memoir reportedly titled Unfinished. In fact, pageants have been stepping stones for many amazing women with fantastic careers in entertainment, including Oprah Winfrey (Miss Black Tennessee at 17, which led to her first part-time anchor gig), Diane Sawyer (who won America’s Junior Miss scholarship pageant in 1963), or Vanessa Williams (the first African-American to win the Miss America pageant in 1983), and the list goes on—including many women who may not have otherwise had the same level of exposure.

When asked how she feels about pageants today, Chopra pauses for a minute and nibbles at the pita bread from the starter we ordered as she contemplates her answer. “I feel like in an evolved world, where we are today, as long as a woman understands that that’s not [her] only option. And then chooses to do it. Who is anyone to judge her?” She continues, “But when women are made to feel like your only option to succeed is to be okay with being objectified or being made to feel stupid…then it’s wrong.”

Pageants are not the only scenarios in which women feel pressure to look perfect, of course: Being a woman in the entertainment industry comes with its own set of pressures that Chopra understands firsthand.

“It’s a necessary evil to look the best that you can. But I’m also the kind of girl who likes to be turned out. I like to get dressed up,” she explains. For Chopra, it’s not just pressure; spending time on her appearance is a form of self-care. She tells me that as women we don’t prioritise ourselves enough. “I’m not saying become vain and narcissistic. But I’m saying sometimes, you just need a moment. And give yourself that minute. Just that minute helps so much.”

And yes, Chopra has benefitted from being beautiful, but she’s also routinely scrutinised for it, just as most women in the public eye are. Still, she’s also been able to find empowerment within it and, like many of us, draws joy from playing with beauty and fashion. “Whatever you need to be fabulous,” she tells me.

Girl’s girl

Image: Daniel Jackson

Chopra and I have a lot more in common than favouring colours that work with our skin tone: We both love the Wu-Tang Clan, spent formative years living in Queens, New York, and are obsessed with fashion. We’ve also both been judged for the colour of our skin, identify as “super feminists,” and are modern women trying to make sense of the world both within and outside of our South Asian identity.

I don’t bring all this up to brag about my immediate similarities to this world-famous woman, but to marvel that while Chopra was literally crowned the “most beautiful woman in the world,” she’s extremely relatable. And, despite our differences, we both came to similar conclusions about beauty: that women should embrace and be empowered in it as they see fit.

I ask her if present-day standards of beauty are inclusive enough. Chopra says she’s thrilled about the expanding definition of what we think is attractive, but makes it clear she believes there’s still a long way to go. “You see so many women, different sizes, modelling, acting, taking their strength, but it’s the mindset that needs to change, of society, of men, of people—that view where a woman in a plus size should not be a check in the box. Or a woman of colour should not be a check in the box. Or a woman shouldn’t be a check in the box.”

She looks at me intently and quotes a familiar saying, but redefines it in the process. “Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder. And everyone doesn’t look the same way, so the world needs to be trained to see beauty differently.”

https://www.vogue.in/content/priyanka-chopra-interview-on-beauty-fashion-miss-world/