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Anita Kapoor, activist


What strikes you about Anita Kapoor is her spirit. On a random night in a bar at The Fort, she will scream to Aerosmith songs with you; on a Carlos Celdran tour of Intramuros she will, without thinking, try your halo-halo. At a restaurant in the middle of nowhere, she’ll share a bite of kamias for the heck of it. The woman will try anything once, and while it might be said that this is but part of the job she keeps—hosting lifestyle shows, going to new places, meeting people—having a conversation with her actually reveals she’s made of sterner stuff than the image of glamour her job allows her to keep.
 
And so over Pinoy-Chinese food in a restaurant along Jupiter Street Makati, the only one open at the insane hour that Anita was to have her dinner, what would unfold might be one of the more intelligent and heartfelt conversations I’ve had with someone who was nothing but stranger at that point. I use stranger lightly of course, if not differently; with current technology a Google search might deem anyone a friend—if not enemy—imagined as those can be. Add to that the fact of Anita’s celebrity status, and there really was every reason to think of difference, if not the un-realness of sitting across her over some sinigang and dim sum.
 
Mumbai-born and Singapore-raised Anita Kapoor rose to fame via a search for the next Singapore host contest
Yet Anita is all real, (even) online. There is of course her official site which is a necessary and expected celebration of her career and achievements. Here we find out about how this Mumbai-born and Singapore-raised woman rose to fame via a search for the next Singapore host contest, though probably more important about this site is that it gives one a sense of this particularly witty and self-deprecating voice that’s rare for the more famous of our Asian women. But what would be more interesting to me is her Wordpress blog, which reveals a very clear stance about woman’s images and advertising, and what should matter despite or precisely because of these superficial times. 
 
That this voice should resonate is telling of what we would rather silence about womanhood in the present: where capitalism and media systems dominate our lives, we are hit on the levels of discontent and insecurity. That this is all about how we look instead of how we think, about how white or thin we are instead of how intelligent, seems like a jab at our notions of independence, too, if not our power—and powerlessness.
 
That this voice also echoes with urgency, from Manila to Singapore, and across Asia, is no surprise. When late last year Anita’s blog entry on a London Weight Management TV advertisement went viral, it was a surprise to her as it was an affirmation: many of us know what’s wrong with these fake if not impossible images of women, few of us know to say something about it. It can only be made more powerful by the fact of Anita’s celebrity. Yet over this late-night conversation, activism would trump celebrity. Months since and following her on Twitter, that still holds true. 
 
Which can only be a feat really, for someone who calls herself a “beginning activist”—an understatement if one is to consider Anita’s activist history. She began with causes like the “No To Rape” campaign in Singapore that fights for the woman’s right to be protected in situations of domestic violence, which alongside the anti-trafficking of women and children campaign, just seem like such large issues compared to writing a blog entry about a weight loss company’s TV commercial. And yet Anita tells us there is no need to compare here: the woman should be protected from a loveless marriage, trafficking, and daily media oppressions, full stop. And how.
 
She says over bites of what she calls sour soup, “There are strong ways to get your message heard through words. I think there’s a lack of writers who will be brave enough to say what they need to say.”  
 
Anita Kapoor is made of sterner stuff than the image of glamour her job allows her to keep.
But isn’t her bravery borne as well of her celebrity status, I ask. Doesn’t that allow her the liberty to speak? “I don’t know if I’m allowed anything,” Anita brushes off notions of celebrity again. Using the London Weight Management blog entry as example, she says, “I do not believe for a minute that the impact it had is about who I am … it’s because people felt the same way, and sometimes you just need one person to say what it is.”  
 
And certainly that person has become Anita. Following her on Twitter, there is a sense of how this woman knows very clearly the piece of earth on which she stands, and has come into a kind of popular activism that cuts across issues of the Singapore day to women’s causes. She knows of the contradiction between the lifestyle show hosting stints she does and the causes she holds close to her heart, and yet there seems to be no crisis here, none at all. 
 
“Anything that we choose to write if we have our heads screwed on right, is relevant. Everything is relevant,” Anita says. “It doesn’t always have to be the mainstream kind of thought, it doesn’t always have to be what is popular. We can choose to write about what moves us.”
 
And yet, coming from Manila, the land of overnight celebrities, what Anita speaks of can only be a dream. To even imagine any celebrity at all deciding to go against mainstream thought? To have any one of them Pinoy female celebrities speak against the beauty industry in any way? Or just have a sense to say no to it and insist that their fans take a stand, too? A dream, I tell you, a dream. 
 
Yet none of it is such to Anita. One finds here a woman who is outspoken but also honest. The latter might be what spells the difference between her and every other Asian – if not Filipino – celebrity. 
 
“Everyone has become conscious of the cult of celebrity. I think what happens is if you make comments [about body image issues], there will be people out there who will say you shouldn’t talk because you were born with these good looks blah blah blah. But anyone who knows me knows that I’ve looked different at different points in my life, and I choose to look the way I do now also because I am 41, and I’ve learned a little bit about life. And I know what I like and don’t like, which is why you morph. I’m probably the most comfortable than I’ve ever been,” she says. 
 
But that this kind of coming-of-age, this self-confidence, translates into articulations that are consistent about issues of being woman in current times, regardless of race and religion, is not as common—or as default a trajectory—as Anita makes it seem. Because she could, conscious as she is of this status, decide not to speak her mind. She could, precisely because of this public status, make hay while the sun shines, or at least censor herself lest she loses out on prospective gigs selling some beauty product or becoming a magazine’s cover girl. 
 
It’s in her refusal to filter opinions, it’s in the fact that she has these opinions at all, about an industry against and alongside which her celebrity exists that makes Anita’s voice more powerful, and infinitely more relevant. And then there’s the fact that this is ultimately such a rare public Asian woman’s voice. 
 
Talking about how women have ceased to even know what is the normal size, or what is wrong with the skin whitening industry, or how magazines have “stopped working for women a long time ago,” Anita is clear about how women too, have turned upon themselves. 
 
“We had years and years of subjugation, and then now, in this time when we can be the freest we can possibly be, we subjugate ourselves again. It’s generally women who are the enemies of themselves. Because we can easily take a stand universally, and say this is shit, I will be what I want to be,” she says.
 
There is of course admitted naiveté in thinking that women could and might come together and take a stand against these impossible and fake images of themselves, but that is the layer of Anita’s activism that is not grim and determined, nor one that just easily falls into the stereotypical lines already drawn for us all.  
 
“I’m not a woman who thinks men are stupid, and that women are weak,” Anita says. And as such, there is always and necessary hope yet not just for her women readers and supporters, but even more so for her male fans. 
 
“My responsibility is to myself, and the people who read my blogs, and who appreciate me for who I am. I find a lot of women who do read my work, who like what I do, how I present myself as a woman. I feel a responsibility to them. Not to say the right things but to keep on changing the status quo and asking the right questions too. And have them thinking about their life, their lot in life. Because women are incredibly strong inside, and sometimes force of circumstance, they let go of their power, they give it to somebody else.” 
 
Now the notion of a celebrity’s responsibility to her audience is not new, yes. But the insistence on questioning the status quo? So darn rare for Asia, I actually envy Singapore that it has Anita.
 
Over this one dinner of course, I thought oh but I have her too, Asian as I am, and Asian as she is, strangely unstable as this notion of Asian-ness might be. In the course of that one Pinoy-Chinese dinner, where we found this shared experience of the oppression(s) we live, what resonated in fact is how our differences are negligible, because our voices are the same. From Singapore to Manila, and in this hole-in-the-wall where there was also laughter and really good food, what we had between us were words. And in these times when women continue to silence themselves, these words don’t only suffice, it also forms a sisterhood that is more than we know to bargain for. It’s a sisterhood that Anita’s activism reminds us still remains possible. –KG, GMA News
 
This interview with Anita Kapoor was made possible by 10+07 Productions Philippines and Robin Roy Films India.
 
Photos from  http://anitakapoor.com. Used with permission.
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