Do Arranged Marriages Still Conform to Narrow Ideals of Beauty?
Akanksha Batra registered herself on a matrimonial website in 2019 only to be objectified within the system of patriarchal conformity. Most men who she ‘matched’ with asked the Delhi-based marketing professional me to lose weight. “You have a pretty face, you just need to shed a few pounds” was what she was subjected to, and that’s how Batra’s experiences with her arranged marriage led her to binge-watch the Netflix reality show, ‘Indian Matchmaking’ during the lockdown in 2020, one that created quite a stir for normalising archaic practices prevalent in India’s arranged marriages.
While many called the show ‘regressive’, others praised it for holding up a mirror to society. You could be on either side, but