My Opinion on My Choice
My Choice by Vogue Empower, a video starring Deepika Padukone and directed by
Homi Adajania has recently gone viral and created quite a stir. I fail to understand
why it has drawn so much flak, from both sexes alike. I agree it is not groundbreaking as far as womens empowerment goes. At best it can be called average
because it does not demonstrate how women can be empowered or the solution to
a lot of problems that women face today, but emphasizes on the fact that womens
empowerment is about the right to choose. Now, let us look at this video from two
viewpoints.
First: What I like about the My Choice video:
It is visually stunning and powerful (who can direct a video with 99 beautiful women
and not make stunning visuals, right?). The message it sends out is bold and strong.
It depicts women power (something like an Adi Shakti) in being as limitless as the
universe and as free as the winds and as unrestrained as the sunlight, which is all
kosher, in theory. It stresses on the fact that everything a woman does in her life is
her choice. This again, is very true in theory and something that both men and
women in our country, not all, but many have to come to terms with. So why has it
irked the Indian masses so much as to attract 34K dislikes on YouTube, as of today?
Is it just a chain reaction of mass hysteria, wherein, the wave of dislike and criticism
just sort of spread, without people actually taking time to think about it? Or is it just
another example of celebrity bashing? After all, Deepika Padukone is the one who
seems to have been at the receiving end of all the criticism for the most part.
Womens empowerment might not be only about wearing and eating what you
want, or being with and sleeping with who you want, but arent these things a part
of womens empowerment anyways? I saw a video of Sonakshi Sinha saying that
women like her and Deepika, who have been brought up in the lap of luxury do not
need empowerment. That is so skewed! Have women born in affluent families never
faced any gender discrimination, never been abused by an uncle or their own
boyfriends? Have they never had any inferiority complex or low self-esteem issues?
Dear Sonakshi, your own Bollywood film industry in whose backyard you grew up, is
an epitome of a field that lacks womens empowerment, what your plethora of male
centric films, raunchy songs, and pelvis thrusting item numbers that objectify
women. I remember one such song in which Shahid Kapoor did some Gandi Baat
with you. Is this your definition of womens empowerment as compared to
Deepikas My Choice video? I know that if anyone asked you this question to your
face in an interview, youd probably say real and reel life are miles apart. But do
movies not have any social responsibility of depicting intelligent content? Arent
they supposed to create awareness in the masses, or are these mediums of
entertainment, just that? Go figure, Sonakshi!
Another video of our recent Bollywood Queen, Kangana Ranaut shows her
denying watching the video but alluding to accusations of it creating a complex in
the men of our country. (Why bother lying through your teeth, Kangana? If my
competitor made a video that got 7K views on YouTube and became a controversy,
Id rush to watch it. Id bitch about it maybe, but definitely watch it.) How exactly
the video creates any complex in men, is best left to Kanganas imagination which is
exactly what the accusation is. Not once has the video depicted that women are
superior to men. If the men of our country find a woman who exerts her choices,
emasculating, it shows a male ego problem and certainly does not throw us on the
path of 20 years of mens empowerment.
I was shocked to see hatred and criticism toward Deepika Padukone pouring in on
the internet in the form of unruly comments like this one on Facebook . So now,
Deepika Padukones choice of becoming an actress instead of following in her
fathers footsteps and becoming a badminton player makes her less of a woman.
Are women who excel in sports, police duty, army, navy etc. superior to models and
actresses? What kind of logic is that? Doesnt womens empowerment entail that
not only are women and men equal, but all women are equal too? Why do the same
people who idolize Amitabh, Rajnikanth, Aamir, Salman, Shahrukh look down upon
the heroines accompanying them? Why is the fashion and film industry considered
to be full of bimbos and skin flaunting sluts? Dont the same men enjoy ogling at
these actresses behind their wives backs? If this is the kind of reaction that one
video evoked, then we as a society are justifying the very need for womens
empowerment, the very need to at least talk about it and discuss it.
Second: What I didnt care much for in the My Choice video:
Having said all of the above, I do not think the words My Choice can be used as
loosely as they have been in the video. In a society, women can hardly make
choices that do not affect others. Not that we should give up our rights to wear what
we want or love who we want, but we cannot make choices without taking others
feelings or rights into consideration. Just because you have a choice to cheat does
not mean you do and does not make it morally right either. Nevertheless the choice
is yours as a woman as much as it is yours as a man. What this particular statement
(To have sex outside marriage, is my choice), in the video was meant to prove is
beyond me. Unless you argue that the video doesnt condone extra-marital
relationships, but simply states that if a woman wants to be in one, it is her choice.
Not necessarily the right one, but a choice it is. God has given a free will to
mankind, but we need to use that will to make choices that are intelligent; both
intellectually and emotionally. So, women all over the world need to know that they
have a right to choose, which brings us to the question of whether all women know
their rights. On this I whole heartedly agree with Sushmita Sens viewpoint that
knowing your rights is more important. If a woman does not realize that she has
certain rights, how can she choose?
Final Word:
All in all, I felt that though visually brilliant and powerful, the message that the
video conveyed was taken out of context by many people and unfortunately turned
into a celebrity bashing match of witless comments. The backlash of negative
attention it drew was appalling, so was the fixation on a few politically incorrect
words as compared to the larger message it hoped to convey. People are forgetting
that sometimes such social messages have to be made a tad bit over the top and
exaggerated to get public attention and if those few politically incorrect statements
can be ignored, the video should be given credit for trying to tackle a burning issue
that is the need of the hour. The video might not have ended up doing much to help
womens empowerment but certainly brought to fore the fact that, it is very much
needed in all strata of the society, including the seemingly empowered or
otherwise.
