It doesn’t matter what profession you follow, how old you are, or how influential your status in the society is – if you’re a woman, chances are, that your character and your body has been poked at and picked apart by other people’s moral compasses, making you feel insecure about your ‘supposed’ flaws.
The media, sometimes, is the annoying aunty that actresses come across, that constantly reminds them of all the things that are wrong with their body. Any tasteless comment about a physical attribute of the actress in question is not only harmful in itself, but it also feeds the famished trolls on the internet, just waiting for the next scrap of meat to be thrown in their direction, so that they can feed on the negativity and spread the hate through social media accounts.
Take, for example, the disgraceful way a news website picked on a childhood photograph of Bollywood actress Disha Patani and called her “ugly”.
The website featured a picture of the actress when she was in her Class VII next to one from a recent event, captioning it “Can you believe how ugly Disha Patani looked once, see the contrast”.
Not one to take things lying down, Patani lashed back at the news website and took to Twitter to give them the perfectly-worded clapback.
You are absolutely right @news24tvchannel ! shouldve worn a beautiful gown and done up my hair n make up nicely before heading to my 7th std class. #sorryforbeinganuglychild P.s. you couldnt get a better breaking news than that? 🤣🤣👍🏻 pic.twitter.com/mJM228LdF1
— Disha Patani (@DishPatani) February 2, 2018
Of course, this isn’t the first time that an actress has been called out for the way she looks or been shamed publically for her behaviour that people thought were not sanskaari enough.
Remember the time our very own Priyanka Chopra was bullied unnecessarily for crossing her legs in a dress when she visited Prime Minister Modi for an interaction? Trust PC to hit back with a response so perfect, we were pretty much standing in applause.
Deepika Padukone had to fight a similar battle with the press when one of India’s leading newspapers tweeted an unflattering video of the actress with the caption “OMG: Deepika Padukone’s cleavage show”, and Padukone, being the beautiful and empowering actress that she is, tweeted a response that pretty much destroyed everything that the newspaper was aiming to go for.
YES!I am a Woman.I have breasts AND a cleavage! You got a problem!!??
— Deepika Padukone (@deepikapadukone) September 14, 2014
To what lengths are we willing to go for a sleazy headline that shows women in poor light? This is just one of the reasons why the media needs a strictly moderated filter for publishing scandalous stories that feed internet trolls, and it’s about damn time they realise it!
