‘Sex symbol’ Zeenat Aman never found herself beautiful, but leveraged her ‘pretty privilege’: ‘Maybe I feared becoming arrogant, or…’

Zeenat Aman recently revealed that she never really managed to wrap her head around being widely referred to as a "sex symbol".

By: Entertainment Desk

Kochi | Updated: September 16, 2025 05:10 PM IST

3 min read

Zeenat Aman recently revealed that she never really managed to wrap her head around being widely referred to as a "sex symbol".

Zeenat Aman in actor-director Shammi Kapoor's Manoranjan. (Credit: Instagram/@thezeenataman)

Insecurity and body image issues are things many of us deal with quite frequently. But what if we told you that even legendary Bollywood actor Zeenat Aman, regarded by many as one of the most gorgeous female artistes the industry has ever seen, also grapples with these problems? In fact, Zeenat herself recently spoke about this and revealed that she never really managed to wrap her head around being widely referred to as a “sex symbol”. Mentioning that she, however, learned how to accept that others found her beautiful and leveraged the “pretty privilege” which came along, the actor also stated that physical beauty is meaningless without self-validation.

Taking to Instagram to share an old photo of her, she wrote that there are moments when certain such pictures make her realise that she wasn’t a “bad-looking girl” after all. “Now if I happen to say these words out loud, I am usually met with an annoyed groan and a dramatic roll of the eyes from whichever of the three millennials whose company I keep happen to be around,” she quipped.

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In her signature unfiltered style, Zeenat Aman stated that she nonetheless never hesitated to accept favours from those enchanted by the beauty they saw in her. “It’s true, though, I never found myself to be beautiful. But I did learn to accept that other people did. I recently heard the term ‘pretty privilege’, and goodness did I make use of mine! The world can be a cold place, and I learnt early in life to leverage every advantage I have to survive it,” the actor stated.

She further admitted that she couldn’t fully embrace her physicality, despite winning a beauty pageant, being cast as a leading lady in their movies by the country’s most celebrated filmmakers, and being widely hailed as a “sex symbol”. Zeenat continued, “Perhaps one got more wrapped up in the performance of beauty than the feeling of beauty. Or perhaps such public emphasis on one’s looks depleted one’s emotional self-worth. Or maybe I feared becoming arrogant, and felt it far too vain and indulgent to consider myself beautiful. Most likely it’s a combination of all these things and then some.”

Check out Zeenat Aman’s post here:

Asserting that this wasn’t because she had impossible beauty standards, since she often spots beautiful people around her, Zeenat noted that even they face self-doubts. She pointed out, Every compliment is met with a redirection to some perceived physical flaw. I’m quite sure you do it too!” The legendary actor emphasised, “Physical beauty, no matter how widely acknowledged, is meaningless without self-validation.”

“If you want to truly feel beautiful, step out of your mind, and look at yourself from the perspective of someone who loves you. Hopefully, then you will see your own light and realise that no cream, collagen or facelift can compete with the lens of love and acceptance,” she concluded.

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