Questionable Choices

As of today, around 7 million people have viewed Deepika Padukone's Vogue Empowerment video. For the first few days, I just ignored it when it appeared on my Newsfeed. But a slew of jokes followed and I knew I couldn't ignore it forever. The first time I watched the video I had a deep unsettling feeling in my gut. Women Empowerment is a very important issue and all that the video pointed out to me was the societal double-standard against men in today's seemingly "modern" world.

The video talks about matters ranging from the choice of clothing to choice to have sex (I'll come back to this one later) and something about being the snowstorm not the snowflake. The video has got so many things wrong it's not even funny. India has so many problems regarding the society bringing women down. India is the place where a girl being married to a man thrice her age is normal, where a girl has to pay the price when the only sin she has committed is being born and the video talks about empowerment by choosing to be either size 0 or size 15. How is that even rational? (Also, If you aspire to be a size 15, you are making questionable choices in the eyes of the whole world by being unhealthy. Just Saying.)

In all this, the thing that dismays me the most is when she says "My choice to marry or not to marry. To have sex before marriage, to have sex outside the marriage". This has to be by far the BIGGEST double-standard of all. Cheating and adultery is NEVER okay regardless of your gender. If this was a boy saying all this rubbish, feminists would have tore him down to pieces. But when a girl says it, it's somehow okay. It's modern, it's hip. Who cares, right ?

Somewhere along the way "my choice" becomes so redundant and absurd that it feels the video is making parody of itself. The first time I watched the video, I pretty much cringed when it neared the end. Many little girls all over the world look up to her and I feel bad for them because this is the message they are receiving.

Soon after the original video came out, "My Choice-male version" appeared which has slightly over a million views. Honestly, this one sends a lot better message than the original one. Equality. If a woman has 7 billion choices, so does a man. But when a man says "To love temporary or lust forever", it just sounds horribly wrong because it reflects the truth of deep-seated patriarchy in the society. We know it's wrong but all we are doing is trying to shift the power paradigm from man to woman. No wonder the word 'feminism' has been synonymous with male bashing because that's what everyone is doing.

Equality is also a choice. A mother's choice to not discriminate the baby in her womb. A father's choice to not marry off her daughter even before she's reached 10 years of age. A man's choice to not harass a woman walking in the streets. A woman's choice not to believe 'every man is the same'. Irrespective of gender, if you are in liberty of making choices about anything, let it be your choice to be equal. No more, no less.

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