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A question of choice

If you haven’t watched the latest video starring Deepika Padukone declaring her choices, its ok you still have time to catch up. The video has spurred backlashes procuring articles from many female writers and bloggers and fans stating their disappointment. Shoba De the famous Indian writer talked about the confusion – she said she was confused if the video was about women empowerment or was it an advert for an international shampoo brand and the volume it gives to a beautiful woman’s hair just like Deepikas’.

One of the fans wrote a letter stating the actress is biased when it comes to women empowerment. I believe the ABC Roast video shows her laughing at lewd jokes passed at someone masturbating to Farida Jalal and Semi Grewal’s dildo but at the same time came out strongly when the Times of India published pictures of her cleavage. Now don’t be so harsh I thought to myself, she is just a pretty girl who has all the right things going for her while at the same time making big bucks. She would be the perfect poster child to talk about women empowerment after her admission to being depressed and appearing on the Burkha Dutt show. That was brave of her not everyone will admit to being depressed. It apparently qualifies her to take up issues that haunts women in Indian society – where female foeticide is highest in the world, where men in Bihar are literally carving a new path to bring in their new brides and where well we haven’t yet forgotten the India’s Daughter documentary.

And then we now have the liberty to watch the Men’s choice video too. Thanks to the social media the Men’s choice video too has gone viral and thank god for that because I couldn’t bear to watch Deepika slipping her dress and saying ‘it’s my choice to have sex with whom I want’. The men’s choice video (yes the men in the video are handsome) strikes the right note and it is subtle too. It doesn’t blame the woman’s choice video but in fact deals with the subject maturely by staying true to the message i.e. men and women should be respected for their choices equally and that if men choose to have sex with their girl friends and choose not to marry them then it is their choice. Aren't women being hypocrite when they blame their boyfriends for not marrying them or classifying cheating husbands as dogs. Shouldn’t men have the right to choose too or have women in showbiz become so vain that they feel choice should no longer be synonymous to men?

Many of my own friends in facebook have resonated their opinion against this statement and I write for all my friends who are equally harmed by this shampoo oops Deepika’s my choice video. I don’t think I or any of my friends would be empowered if we chose to have sex outside of our marriage it would simply mean we cheated. And it applies to both men and women – its time women in show biz decide how they want to be empowered. Do they still want to be paraded in bikinis in item numbers while their male counterparts are fully clothed? Do they want to play femme fatales forever or do they want to start taking social cues as to how they want to portray themselves in their movies too.
I also believe that the women appearing in the video don’t need any kind of empowerment, they all seem to be from show biz, fashion and business industries. These women made a choice to be in their professions and if broadsheet media wants to sell their papers by publishing Deepika’s cleavage she didn’t refute to dancing in bikinis to sell her movies and make money. While the video has managed to ridicule what empowerment is for women I hope the director (what’s his name?) and the artists appearing in the video take some grassroots lessons on how India is faring when it comes to women being treated equally not just at work place but at homes too.

Appearing in chat shows and videos and talking about choices does not shed a positive light on the plight of millions of girls and women who face discrimination even in their mother’s wombs. It’s about time women as powerful as Deepika start lending their voices to serious social issues which not only concerns her cleavage but also millions of girls who don’t get to go to school simply because they are girls. Girls who are raped because they are dalits and girls who get married off as young as 9 because the dowry hassle.

I poke at social issues that bother me and sometimes I am biased when it comes to women empowerment but this choice video has taken feminism to a newest height even I can’t fathom.



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