While it is common knowledge that society applies different standards to men and women even in what should ideally be gender-neutral spaces, the immense absurdity of the situation was underlined this past weekend when ace tennis player Sania Mirza was questioned by celebrity journalist Rajdeep Sardesai about when she would “settle down” and embrace motherhood.
Mirza, who is currently the world’s number one women’s doubles tennis player, and arguably one of the most successful players of her generation, pushed back and called out Sardesai for his misogynist line of questioning, who then apologized and repeatedly so. But Mirza’s point – that women, no matter who they are, where they live and how successful they have been, are considered to be not quite ‘settled’ until they become mothers, or for that matter have married, has struck a chord with many.
Actor Twinkle Khanna, for example, wrote about these double standards in her provocatively titled column, “Why I googled leander in a wet t-shirt” in a national daily, in which is rightly pointed out that while tennis champion Serena Williams, who has 22 Grand Slam titles to her name, was made fun of because her nipples showed through her dress, her male colleagues who were often in a similar position were rarely body-shamed in this manner. At the same time, across the planet, actor Jennifer Aniston also made a long comment on the issue, focusing on the subject of motherhood.
Whether or not Aniston was about to have a baby has been the subject of much media speculation – and while the it is understandable that the private lives of public figures will talked about and scrutinised, the actor was at pains to underline that motherhood was a matter of choice, and it’s unfair to assume that all women want babies and worse still, unless they have put their wombs to good use, they are not quite complete. Sadly, women themselves also contribute to this by actively participating in it – for example, Andrea leadsom who was in the race to be Britain’s next Prime Minister had said that she would make for a better leader than rival Theresa May (who has since bagged the top job) because she was a mother while her rival was childless!