Known for being candid, feisty and unapologetic, Shobhaa De always manages to stay in the headlines whether for expressing her views on the current socio-political environment or for being the torchbearer of feminism in the country. With a career in journalism and writing spanning around 47 years, Shobhaa De announced herself early onto the literary scene with her first novel Socialite Evenings published in 1989. She edited several entertainment publications including Stardust magazine which saw its popularity soar under her editorship.
At the cover release of her book Seventy And To Hell With It at Penguin Fever, she talked to us about what it meant to be a feminist, the consequences of her being candid on social media and what she makes of people who openly threaten to kill her.
Excerpts:
So Ms Shobhaa De, you’ve written about 20 books in 28 years. Do you feel old yet?
Never! I think I’ll go to my grave feeling like a teenager.
Well, you do not look 70 at all! Do you get this compliment a lot?
I do, but I can’t take credit for it. It’s something that is God-given and I can only confess that I’ve had no work done and will never go under the knife. It’s got to be something that is in the genes.
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What does being a feminist in India mean to you?
It’s a very loaded political term and I don’t subscribe to any isms. I believe in equality and I will definitely stand up as much for a man who is being oppressed in any situation as I would for a woman. The only thing is in the world more women are oppressed than men. But feminism is only about choice and equality, nothing else.
You recently tweeted that India needs a Hugh Hefner-like figure. Do we really need Playboy to drive home the feminism argument?
A lot of our sexual energies are negative, destructive and extremely violent, and directed at women, children and defenceless people. Hugh Hefner, in a sense, freed American society from their hypocrisies. So we need some such person to free us from ours, to bring sex out in the open vicariously or otherwise and objectify both men and women. The number of people who watch porn is highest in India but what they’re watching is something pretty nasty whereas Hefner’s Playboy was an airbrushed look at beautiful bodies.
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There was an AIB video that talked about how an Australian man was acquitted of molestation when he said he was inspired from how women were treated in Bollywood. Do you think Bollywood is complicit in the violence against women?
To blame everything on Bollywood is not fair but it’s true there is a certain way in which Bollywood represents women and always has, which sometimes gives the impression that Bollywood has scant respect for women. The movies also, for example, sanction stalking. In the past, the portrayal of romance was necessarily violent towards women whom the men were attracted to and whose attention they sought. I find that is being picked up across India in smaller towns especially where it’s very difficult for men to have a normal, healthy relationship or even access to women their own age. There is definitely a sense of responsibility that Bollywood should own up to and maybe be more careful about how they inadvertently demean women, especially the item songs and their lyrics.
So where do you think feminism ends and objectification begins?
Feminism and objectification definitely do overlap but I respect those choices made by women which are informed and where they are okay with being depicted in a certain way. Anything that is forced or there is a compulsion or exploitation involved, I have a problem with that.
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Girls in Delhi are actually pretty scared of going out at night. Do you think that’s happening in Mumbai too?
There is certainly more sensitivity towards going out at night that there used to be 10 years ago. Today, when my daughters go out I am definitely far more concerned about their safety. So the environment has definitely changed. But with Delhi having long, lonely and badly-lit avenues can lead to problems whereas in a hectic, busy city like Mumbai, even if you shout people will somehow crawl out of the woodworks.
You were trolled earlier this year for asking an overweight cop to consult a dietician. Do you regret tweeting that?
Not at all. In fact, he has thanked me publicly because he said if I hadn’t mentioned the problem of being overweight in the police, he wouldn’t have got free treatment. They would not have addressed the question of policemen being fit on a much bigger level if that tweet hadn’t received such outrage. When you’re a cop you are in a job that requires you to maintain certain fitness standards.
Also Read: Cop shamed by Shobhaa De comes out with real reason behind obesity and trolls her while at it!
You also advised Sushma Swaraj to tweet less and were trolled for that too. Do you take the hit-backs seriously?
I don’t ever respond and I don’t get into these troll-storms at all. I’m completely unaffected because I don’t think that I’ve done anything wrong or illegal through my tweets, not incited violence or used abusive language. So I’m perfectly within my democratic rights to express an opinion. If there are thousands who don’t like the opinion they are free to counter it as well.
What do you think of people who openly threaten to kill you, in the context of Gauri Lankesh murder?
There were five of us who were targetted and the person said that there will be serial assassinations. This is where the State needs to send a strong message that these kinds of threats are simply unacceptable and these people need to be tracked and punished. On the other hand, I don’t want to lead a life of such restriction and paranoia, looking over my shoulder all the time or looking to see who is going to drive up next to me, wearing a helmet. I’m not going to live like that and I’m not going to compromise.
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