Everytime a woman is raped or molested our first instinct is to find out what she was wearing and what time of the night she was out at. The more apt questions would sound like what’s wrong with the mentality of men who think they can touch and get intimate with a woman who is not interested in them, but well common sense is too mainstream it seems. Victim-shaming has gotten so bad that the next thing we know three month-olds getting raped too would get checked for the clothes they were wearing at the time of rape.
Only recently a Malayali actress was kidnapped and molested which was followed by Varalaxmi Sarathkumar’s revelation of casting couch in the film industry. Disha Patani has now joined the club with her Instagram post where she raised her voice against victim-shaming. Patani herself received a fair amount of flak for her photoshoot for Daboo Ratnani’s calendar. Ratnani has been known for his yearly calendar which has celebrities posing sometimes in very risue outfits or even completely nude. The calendar is one of the most awaited events every year and Patani’s ‘bold’ photoshoot for it did not go down well with some people for reasons best known to them.
Not surprisingly at all, the comments on her own post have not been very heartening and people did not let go of the chance to again question her choice of clothes. One even went out to pass a diktat saying ‘Goddess never show their skin to others’. Forget about the grammar, whosoever this is has either met Hindu Godesses personally or missed out on Kali’s IDGAF wardrobe. Either way, this one sure showed us what Patani is miffed about isn’t a figment of her imagination but indeed a very real issue.
Disha Patani/Instagram
It’s heartwarming to see actresses coming out to speak up about issues like victim-shaming and slut-shaming which plague women. We cannot emphasise enough how when rapes happen it’s nobody apart from the rapist responsible for it and maybe women with influence will someday soon change this mentality in the country as well as within the industry.
