My Choice or May Be Not!
on Apr 01, 2015
By now most of you might have seen the much hyped and talked Deepika Padukone video 'My Choice' and many of you might have also seen the male version of it. It's been 2 days that both the videos are trending on social media, thanks to all the social pundits and enthusiasts.
Now, let's try to make sense out of this video. 'Feminism' and 'women empowerment' were the two elements that people could relate to after watching it. According to Jimmy Wales, here is what feminism truly means;
"The advocacy of women’s rights on the grounds of political, social, and economic equality to men."
Now coming back to the video, we don’t really think it has anything to do with feminism. You see, there is feminism and then there is pseudo feminism. In India most of us can't differentiate between the two.
Deepika Padukone talking about sex outside marriage in a Vogue video is not going to empower any woman or not even going to help in bringing any political, social, and economic equality to women. It's simply a viral video, just to create a buzz and nothing else and it is working pretty well for Deepika and Vogue.
What we don't understand is the brouhaha from her side when TOI made a big deal about her cleavage! 'Her Choice' again it seems.
Be it Deepika or any other women who were part of this video, we just have one thing to say to all of you: Please for god sake or for your own sake don’t play with women’s right, dignity, objectification and subjugation. These are not just some random fancy words picked out of Oxford dictionary destined to be included in elite conversations over wine! These are issues, real ones, that don't disappear as soon as some one shouts, 'Cut!'
We also understand that you were paid handsomely for this video and it is part of your work and that's how it should be taken. Coming to the point of other women starring in this video. Who are these women? Mostly good looking women by industry standards with shiny flowing hair, dark kohl-lined eyes, trendy jewellery, tattoos, urban clothes, a few well-known names and mostly belonging to the urban cities. Oh, and of course there are a few tribal women in their colourful clothes and wrinkled skin to throw in a bit of texture and create an aesthetic appeal. These are not real women, they are models and they were auditioned to be a part of this video.
The video only talks about women choosing what to wear, till when to party, to have sex or not. But the video in any manner does not talk about the choice of getting educated, the choice of making friends, the choice of taking a break from the daily household chores and go on a vacation, the choice of not getting married as a child, the choice of not aborting a child, the choice of seeking justice.
And to add a different flavour, if we must, consider Salman Khan or maybe SRK starring in the same video and saying the same things. Woooah! I see a huge drama and mostly a banning notice from the censor board.
The video has gone viral, few opportunists or should we call them hop-opportunists have leveraged the video for a 15 minute social visibility and fame and the actors got their share of hefty payments.
Feminism? Women empowerment? Nah... Let's continue demanding and shouting for equality even though none of us know what it is or why it is, let's be an absolute men hater! Because an aesthetically shot black and white video is more than enough to represent women empowerment!
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