By now, every one might have watched the most viral Deepika's Women Empowerment video.
I watched it on Sunday, but couldn't post as I was migrating my blog to new domain. I was thinking about those lines again and again. People were extremely divided on this video, some applauded it and some completely rejected it as extreme feminist attempt.
I really liked some ideas of the video and more than the content, the attempt to drive women empowerment. My understanding is that the production team wanted viewers to discard the ideas of objectification of a woman, and give importance to her inner soul. I liked the concept of 99 women, choice of colours, screenplay and background music. Sadly poor choice of the words negated the entire idea of women empowerment. And today, I read that somewhere the script was written by a male, Deepika should not have agreed to repeat those words!!
Here is the full transcript of the video :
My body, my mind, my choice
To wear the clothes I like; even if my spirit roams naked
My choice; to be a size 0 or a size 15
They don’t have a size for my spirit, and never will
To use cotton and silk to trap my soul is to believe that you can halt the expansion of the universe
Or capture sunlight in the palm of your hand
Your mind is caged, let it free
My body is not
Let it be
My choice
To marry, or not to marry
To have sex before marriage, to have sex out of marriage, or to not have sex
My choice
To love temporarily, or to lust forever
My choice
To love a man, or a woman, or both
Remember; you are my choice, I’m not your privilege
The bindi on my forehead, the ring on my finger, adding your surname to mine, they’re all ornaments and can be replaced
My love for you cannot, so treasure that
My choice; to come home when I want
Don’t be upset if I come home at 4am
Don’t be fooled if I come home at 6pm,
My choice; to have your baby or not
To pick you from 7 billion choices or not
So don’t get cocky
My pleasure might be your pain
My songs, your noise
My order, your anarchy
Your sins, my virtues
My choices are like my fingerprints
They make me unique
I am the tree not the forest
I am the snowflake not the snowfall
You are the snowflake
Wake up
Get out of the shit storm
I choose to empathize
Or to be indifferent
I choose to be different
I am the universe
Infinite in every direction
This is my choice
The lines in blue are my favorites. I highlighted the lines, I do not agree with, in red colour.
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| Feminism is not about women being superior to men |
Feminism is not a fight against men!! Respect Men!!!
Psuedo feminism is as dangerous as male chauvinism, if not more. The entire tone of the video is such that it is fight against men, it looked like a direct and very hostile attack. Feminism is not about downplaying men, it is fight against the idea of gender discrimination. Feminism is all about - Gender neutrality!! Anyways, it is not just the men who judge women, very often it is women who pull each other down.
Women empowerment is not about freedom to do any senseless thing you want to!!
Empowerment is not just taking your decisions, it is also about holding the complete responsibility of the consequences of those decisions. If you have sex and a baby outside your marriage, you need to hold the responsibility of raising the baby on your own, also with full dignity. You can't dump the baby and say, "It is my choice!!". That is not the empowerment we need.
Marriage is not a cage, it is a relationship!!
Even, he picked you from 7 billion choices, not just you!! A relationship between two people is a choice of both of them, respect the other person equally. You haven't done him a favour by choosing him and neither he did. Do not underplay his role in your life!! I will have a problem, if my husband spends too little time with me, if comes home at 4:00 AM every day..He promised to share his life and so I demand his time!! Certain decisions have to be mutually agreed!! The only sensible line about relationships in the whole video is, "The bindi on my forehead, the ring on my finger, adding your surname to mine, they’re all ornaments and can be replaced. My love for you cannot, so treasure that"
It is NEVER okay for a man or a woman, to have sex outside marriage. Period.
Such a wrong message to entire country or world!! You cannot insult the institution of marriage in any country. Why to call yourselves - " a wife and a husband", if you cannot hold the sanctity of your marriage?? Break it and do whatever you want, but do not advise people around to cheat their spouses. Which country calls this empowerment? The video should have been banned for this one disgusting line, because extramarital affairs are punishable under law.
Concept is good, but the topics of discussion should have been different!!
The image of Deepika should have been used to drive attention to many other pressing issues - female infanticide, Dowry, domestic violence, Acid attacks, blaming women for rapes, less representation of women in many fields and many more!! I do not understand how Deepika or vogue team arrived at linking "choice to have sex outside marriage" as women empowerment. I think, the only important issue this video addresses is objectification of women in first few seconds.
Last, but not least, here are best comments from Deepika Narayan Bhardwaj :
"If it is your choice to have sex outside marriage, it should be his choice too. Don't then call him a womanizer or get offended if he calls you a slut because what opinion he has of you is his choice! If he wants to marry a fair, beautiful girl don't call him sexist...because it is his choice to choose the partner he wants. If he wants to marry a woman who brings with her lot of wealth during marriage for his better life...don't call him a dowry seeker because it is his choice. It is his choice too to love a man or a woman or just himself or noone inside or outside of marriage. Don't ridicule him calling him impotent , gay, tharki and get him arrested because who he loves whether inside or outside marriage is his choice. It is his choice whether he wants to live with his parents or not. Don't force him for what you want because it's his choice and YOU made a choice to come to his home. Don't treat him as a robot that should operate so that your choices are taken care of. HE IS A HUMAN BEING and he too has ALL THE RIGHTS to HIS CHOICE! Also - do not file rape case on promise of marriage after having consensual sex because he made a CHOICE not to MARRY YOU. Ms Deepika Padukone and girls who agree with this video - make your choice but stand up to how society perceives your choices as - because how they look at it is entirely their CHOICE."
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