While we compliment Deepika Padukone for taking a ‘brave stand’ on her cleavage post on Twitter, we wonder why this reaction came so late in the day
So this is a deeper issue than the cleavage ruckus that has Twitter aflame at this point. First of all, we must compliment Deepika Padukone for daring to take a stand in an industry ridden with clichés, especially about women. So why was Deepika Padukone targeted at all at an inconvenient time (or convenient as some naysayers are saying this was done by her to establish a talking point for her film promotions)IJ A time when she is sitting pretty atop the seat of stardomIJ
Perhaps it is symptomatic of a subtle change in the industry, where glamour girls, for too long expected to fill out the contours of a stereotype, are daring to come out in their flesh and blood. Having established themselves with some power-packed performances and having delivered the goods (in 100 crores too), they are in a position to challenge existing formula. And perhaps that’s the reason why the misogynist mindset rears its ugly head now and then. To tell women actors where they stand in the sweepstakes.
Valued for their looks than minds, their “mirchi bomb” (that’s how industry boys call happening leading ladies) status than acting chops. So a rebel Deepika had to be countered by a heavyweight media front perhaps.
No matter how many industrywallahs stood up for Deepika with #IStandWithDeepika, fact is it is the same industry which spins multi-crore ventures out of a disgusting commodification of women in zero tolerance films like Grand Masti or Humshakals. So it is just not the media who is being the hypocrite, it is also the entire entertainment industry, which honestly feeds on sensationalist media, and the audience, who notch up “likes” and “hits” on social media and give multi-crore returns on a Sunny leone lap dance.
It is easy enough to pan the media on this and the media must do self-introspection. But it is also true that the media has many categories, the viral social media, the eye-grabbing visual media and the more conventional print media. Each has its layer of permissiveness. So our stars should know that social media is a wild, unpoliced badland where everybody’s word is taken against the other’s and rated equally. Our stars, who make themseleves available to all kinds of media, should also be aware of their acceptability by and expectations of each. You just cannot deride the paparazzi culture when you are playing by its rules. Red carpet galas world over are showcase events that are widely photographed, be it Deepika, lady Gaga or Miley Cyrus, labelled cattily and captioned cheesy. Being a fashion icon of sorts, all of them throw up a surprise or two, be it in a nude dress, a bronzed cleavage or a revealing hemline. So reacting on a paparazzi-like depiction of that posturing is a bit naive.
How we wish Deepika’s ‘brave stand’ — “YES! I am a Woman. I have breasts AND a cleavage! You got a problem!!IJIJ” — would have come a little earlier. May be when for the first time the actress (or should we say modelIJ) was asked by the lensmen to pout or stand or sit in a certain way. Or may be the first time when paparazzi made most of her bikini shots to up their glam quotient. Well, there were no objections to any of these in the past. She has posed for the Kingfisher calendar and God knows how many men lust over those calendar shots! We would surely have admired Deepika if she had taken this stand on the red carpet itself earlier rather than now. It is admirable that she has taken a stand that “accept women’s sexuality as natural” but isn’t she also aware that most Indian men are still far away from that mindset, be it a young twerp in charge of a Twitter handle on a Sunday or the most maverick filmmaker aroundIJ Hope she begins with cleaning up the other end in her control, the deliverer of images, rather than just shoot the messenger.