Meet these local advocates who dare to challenge the status quo for the next generation of women as they dismantle every last one of the old husbands&rsquo; tales on female autonomy.

NALISA ALIA AMIN (<a href="https://www.instagram.com/nalisaliamin/?hl=en">@nalisaliamin</a>)

All the commotion and chaos not unfamiliar to a fashion week came to a sudden halt when stylist to the stars Min Luna unveiled her collection with FashionValet at Kuala Lumpur Fashion Week 2018. Celebrating every woman under the sun, she sent models of diverse body types, skin tones and ages down the runway. Among those who captured the attention of industry players and spectators was none other than Nalisa Alia Amin.

Was it hard breaking into the fashion industry?
It was but I was lucky because I came at a time when diversity was in&mdash;what everybody was trying to bring into their brand. I actually had no intention of becoming a model because I was not skinny and I was not tall. I did it for fun because I like being in different characters in front of the camera.
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What has been the biggest &ldquo;no&rdquo; you&rsquo;ve gotten so far?
Hearing that I&rsquo;m not tall or fat enough. Before, they told me to lose weight to be a model but now I have to gain weight? I know that there are certain sizes for plus-size fashion but the thing is, you should cater to women of all sizes if you want to champion diversity.
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Do you think the term &ldquo;plus-size model&rdquo; is reductive in this day and age?
It depends on the model. For me, I find it quite redundant and I don&rsquo;t want to be labelled as that anymore. I am a model. I do what other models do: I walk the runway when brands want me to, I pose for them when they dress me up and all these things.
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Have you always been confident in your skin?
No, it&rsquo;s a journey. I was a very insecure kid, my weight fluctuated a lot and I also suffered from eating disorder which contributed to my body dysmorphia. It wasn&rsquo;t until I was in my mid-20s that I realised that I was tired of having to live up to people&rsquo;s expectations on how I should look like.
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Are you totally at peace with your body now?
A lot of people think that once you&rsquo;re feeling confident, you&rsquo;re going to be confident 24/7. You&rsquo;re not. I still have my insecurities but I know that it&rsquo;s just a fleeting feeling. It&rsquo;s always been a journey, a never-ending one, for me.
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As a body acceptance advocate, what is the message you want to relay?
It&rsquo;s normal to have insecurities but you shouldn&rsquo;t punish your body. I used to work out twice a day, every day and starve myself but no matter what the result was, in my mind, I was still fat because I was comparing myself to people with different body types than mine.

AIN HUSNIZA (<a href="https://www.instagram.com/ainhsaifulnizam/?hl=en">@ainhsaifulnizam</a>)

It all started with a social media post. Ain Husniza sparked a nationwide debate after a video she uploaded on TikTok, detailing her experience in class concerning questionable comments made by her Physical Education teacher at the time, made the rounds across the cyberspace. The short clip inadvertently exposed the country&rsquo;s institutional failure in providing safety for the school students and became the launch pad for the #MakeSchoolASaferPlace movement.

What&rsquo;s the hashtag all about?
I used it as a way to garner attention from policymakers and the general public around issues like sexual harassment in schools that have been normalised without adults and parents realising. This topic is regarded as taboo and oftentimes victims are silenced to preserve the &ldquo;good name&rdquo; of the school.
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Did you anticipate the pushback you got from the people around you?
Not at all. I didn&rsquo;t expect the video to go viral as I had only used social media as a platform for sharing among friends like a lot of other teenagers my age do. But it was of course heartbreaking when I received the pushback especially from the people close to me&mdash;the ones I thought had my back.
&nbsp;
Having met others with similar experiences, what have you learned about sexual harassment in the country?
I&rsquo;ve learned that this is not a problem that is only happening to us but to students all over the world, though there are some issues unique to Malaysia&mdash;problems like period spot checks&mdash; where we actually need to work together to find the solution to.
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Do you think that it&rsquo;s a problem that we can solve?
Issues like sexual harassment has always happened in our schools but the people in power have been successful in silencing the victims and protecting the perpetrators. But now, with the power of social media and collective voices, I hope we can help and spread awareness on this.
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What kind of reforms are you hoping to see?
I&rsquo;m hoping for a specific policy catering to victims of sexual harassment in schools. Other than that, I also hope to see reforms in our Sex Education syllabus and the counselling body in schools where students would have the access to unbiased help to combat the issues of breach of trust and victim blaming.
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How has the whole experience affected you and what&rsquo;s next?
It has completely turned my life upside down and it has been hard to cope with. But with the support of my family and friends, it has been a little bit easier. I plan to pursue my studies and take law but one of the dreams of mine is to write a book or even establish my own non-profit organisation.

ELAINE HONG (<a href="https://www.instagram.com/elainehongelaine/?hl=en">@elainehongelaine</a>)

While enduring discomfort when menstruating is not something that&rsquo;s unheard of, it never occurred to Elaine Hong that the same experience might not apply to the genitalia. It wasn&rsquo;t until recently that she learned that she could&rsquo;ve been spared all the needless pain by simply switching to organic sanitary pads. In striving to reach out to women facing the same issue and offer them the same alternative at an accessible price point, she co-founded Enya.

What&rsquo;s your experience with commercial pads like?
I have sensitive skin so I would get either rashes or itchiness whenever I use commercial pads. I&rsquo;ve had the same problem since I was younger but I didn&rsquo;t take notice of it. Just like me, a lot of women think that it&rsquo;s normal to have all these rashes, little red bumps and burning sensation when menstruating.
&nbsp;
Why do you think that is?
There is no safe environment for you to talk about it&mdash;even my mom didn&rsquo;t really talk about it when I got my first period. And can you think of a brand of menstrual hygiene products that enables you to comfortably talk about periods? I don&rsquo;t think so. It&rsquo;s a taboo topic because it&rsquo;s so &ldquo;dirty&rdquo; but it&rsquo;s not.
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And Enya is working towards changing that?
Yes. Moving forward, as a company, we want to work together with organisations to go to schools, not just to educate the girls but also to be there with them at their growing stage. It wouldn&rsquo;t be just a one-session thing. We need to have continuous safe conversations.
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What are the common misconceptions about periods that need debunking?
One of the myths that I often come across is that you can&rsquo;t get pregnant if you have sex during your period. You can, especially if you&rsquo;re having unprotected sex. There are other fallacies as well like you can&rsquo;t go swimming or you can&rsquo;t engage in your self-care routine like cutting your nails and washing your hair.
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What&rsquo;s your take on period poverty in Malaysia?
Many are suffering from this at present especially the homeless people. The way they deal with periods is just by using tissue, cloths or even sand, and they free bleed everywhere. We want to address this issue but, as a company, all we can do right now is donate products.
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Is the government&rsquo;s initiative to provide free supply of feminine hygiene kits to young women in the B40 category a sustainable solution to this?
I think it depends on whether or not the supplies will keep coming and that depends on the budget&mdash;if there is a budget, then there is sustainability in supplying the period kits long term.

JASMINE KING (<a href="https://www.instagram.com/jasexplains/?hl=en">@jasexplains</a>)

Working for a talent management company by day and advocating on sex positivity via her social media page by night, Jasmine King is dedicated to creating a safe space for taboo conversations to be discussed openly, honestly and respectfully. Her sex podcast show, I Wish Someone Told Me, aims to do just that with each episode featuring real stories on gender and sexuality, intimacy, sexual health, dating and pleasure as told by Asians or those living in Asia.

Do you advocate based on your personal experience?
Yes, much of my advocacy work is based on personal experience as well as through the stories shared by my followers. I also have a degree in Social Science where I minored in Gender Studies.
&nbsp;
You previously talked about your experience of hearing a comment made by a teacher at school about virginity. Was that the turning point for you in terms of getting started to know your body and sexuality?
I wouldn&rsquo;t say it was the turning point but it definitely contributed to it. I think the turning point would be when I saw women&rsquo;s bodies being sexualised on TV and in porn, and yet, when I asked questions about my body, sexuality and pleasure, it&rsquo;s a taboo topic and something that&rsquo;s shameful.
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How did that experience affect you?
When a male teacher commented that girls who weren&rsquo;t virgins are &ldquo;useless&rdquo;, akin to a paper falling in the mud, it definitely raised a red flag and made me want to learn more about my body and sexuality myself rather than depending on others, especially male adults, to tell me what they should mean to me and society.
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You mentioned that you wanted to demystify female pleasure. What did you mean by that?
When it comes to pleasure for women, there is still a misunderstanding that women don&rsquo;t feel pleasure at all because some of us are made to believe that sex and pleasure are only for men, that we&rsquo;re hard to please and we take a long time to have an orgasm; whereas the women in porn orgasm ever so easily.
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How has that notion impacted you?
Due to this, I, along with other women I&rsquo;m sure, feel like I am not worthy of pleasure and that sex ends when the guy has an orgasm. This is very damaging to women and our self-esteem, let alone our sense of worth and ability to enjoy sex.
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What are the challenges of being a sex positive advocate in Malaysia?
Meeting people who mistake your sex positivity for sexual promiscuity, therefore soliciting sexual favours from you or feeling entitled to your time. Unfortunately, as a woman in this field, it&rsquo;s pretty common for that to happen.

Interview: 4 brilliant Malaysian advocates who celebrate women

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