This may not be the first time, and definitely is not the last time when provocative and sexual gestures, remarks, images are being used as a medium to attract attention. Similar is the case of the video published by the national newspaper The Times Of India on their entertainment page which was titled, “OMG: Deepika Padukone’s cleavage show.” The title itself is begging for attention and this is what journalism has now come down to.
Deepika Padukone, the famous actress who made her debut alongside the King of Bollywood Shahrukh Khan, has come out all guns blazing to put an end to this silence which may have been taken for granted by the Media houses. Deepika Padukone has proved that she has a backbone to support her cleavage which started all of this controversy. She has replied to the tweets stating, “YES!I am a Woman.I have breasts AND a cleavage! You got a problem!!??,”. She also posted a screen shot of the video by TOI and tweeted: “Supposedly India’s ‘LEADING’ newspaper and this is ‘NEWS’!!??” and “Dont talk about Woman’s Empowerment when YOU don’t know how to RESPECT Women!”
This is the point where the Media house could have redeemed itself by making an apology, as Deepika is not concerened about the video footage, but she has a strong objection to the title of the news. These tweets acted as a fuel to the fire and then the leading daily came out with a shocking reply to all the concerns raised but failed miserably and have further objectified these actresses as sex toys. Times of India (TOI) reacted, without mincing words, that is-”Deepika, we accept your reel vs real argument, but what about all the times, and there have been many, when you have flaunted your body off screen - while dancing on stage, posing for magazine covers, or doing photo ops at movie promotional functions? What ‘role’ do you play there? So why the hypocrisy? What’s equally hypocritical is that several media outlets have freely displayed Deepika’s cleavage even as they sounded all outraged on her behalf. Surely they could have reported the story without those pictures?”
The national news house did not stop there; it further asked a few questions. “We have always campaigned against the moral police. We believe there’s no shame in Deepika showing off her body, but does she now want us to first check with her as to which pictures of her - taken at public events - we can or cannot publish? Are we going to have a parallel censor board for pictures of film stars taken off screen but in plain sight of the world, as Deepika’s was? It’s not as if the pictures were shot with hidden cameras, or that someone sneaked into her home, invaded her privacy, and took those pictures without her knowledge/permission.”
Now amidst all this #IStandWithDeepikaPadukone has started trending on Twitter and the actress support is pouring in for the celebrity for locking horns with the Times of India. Thousands of people, especially from the Bollywood industry are condemning the media house.
This is not a stand-alone case, it has been led to this point by our ignorance and silence of the past years and hence we see this day. Not long ago in a separate case a journalist asked Parineeti Chopra about the fact that when girls are young, they “enjoy it” and when they become mature, they shout at men about the same thing. Clearly he was talking about sex or male attention in general, but his question missed the mark and received a fitting response from the young actress. Although, in the current case The Times Of India has become the scapegoat in this case, yet this is not the only media house to be blamed. Media has a crucial responsibility in shaping our consciousness. Our media is more powerful than we can ever imagine, it can help transform a Porn actress to become Bollywood actress and it can degrade a Bollywood actress to become a porn star. This is so because we have supported our media in objectifying our women. Although some may say that the entire film industry nowadays is thriving on sex to make the sale, yet it does not give the right in the hand of the News giants to debase the acting professionals.
Some may believe that amid all this controversy, both the media house as well as Deepika Padukone are winners. As this has acted as a publicity stunt for the actress whose film ‘Finding Fanny’ has released recently and further the promotion for Shahrukh Khan Starrer ‘Happy New Year’ is in full swing. This controversy simply highlights the fact the today’s society portrays women in a mortifying manner and objectifies them as a sex object for their physical appearance rather than for the talents.
We may be on a brink of an outbreak towards the media. After the demeaning response from The Times Of India, the silence has been broken by many from the acting fraternity. This is just the tip of the iceberg and we may see more fingers being pointed in the days to come. Here’s hoping that people in powerful positions understand the enormity of their voices and make them vocal at the right places for the right cause.
The national news house did not stop there; it further asked a few questions. “We have always campaigned against the moral police. We believe there’s no shame in Deepika showing off her body, but does she now want us to first check with her as to which pictures of her - taken at public events - we can or cannot publish? Are we going to have a parallel censor board for pictures of film stars taken off screen but in plain sight of the world, as Deepika’s was? It’s not as if the pictures were shot with hidden cameras, or that someone sneaked into her home, invaded her privacy, and took those pictures without her knowledge/permission.”
Now amidst all this #IStandWithDeepikaPadukone has started trending on Twitter and the actress support is pouring in for the celebrity for locking horns with the Times of India. Thousands of people, especially from the Bollywood industry are condemning the media house.
This is not a stand-alone case, it has been led to this point by our ignorance and silence of the past years and hence we see this day. Not long ago in a separate case a journalist asked Parineeti Chopra about the fact that when girls are young, they “enjoy it” and when they become mature, they shout at men about the same thing. Clearly he was talking about sex or male attention in general, but his question missed the mark and received a fitting response from the young actress. Although, in the current case The Times Of India has become the scapegoat in this case, yet this is not the only media house to be blamed. Media has a crucial responsibility in shaping our consciousness. Our media is more powerful than we can ever imagine, it can help transform a Porn actress to become Bollywood actress and it can degrade a Bollywood actress to become a porn star. This is so because we have supported our media in objectifying our women. Although some may say that the entire film industry nowadays is thriving on sex to make the sale, yet it does not give the right in the hand of the News giants to debase the acting professionals.
Some may believe that amid all this controversy, both the media house as well as Deepika Padukone are winners. As this has acted as a publicity stunt for the actress whose film ‘Finding Fanny’ has released recently and further the promotion for Shahrukh Khan Starrer ‘Happy New Year’ is in full swing. This controversy simply highlights the fact the today’s society portrays women in a mortifying manner and objectifies them as a sex object for their physical appearance rather than for the talents.
We may be on a brink of an outbreak towards the media. After the demeaning response from The Times Of India, the silence has been broken by many from the acting fraternity. This is just the tip of the iceberg and we may see more fingers being pointed in the days to come. Here’s hoping that people in powerful positions understand the enormity of their voices and make them vocal at the right places for the right cause.
About the author: Husnaa is a first year Psychology student and likes to contribute ideas and opinions through the medium of articles and blogs.
No comments:
Post a Comment