We have majorly heard that women don’t know how to drive, aren’t good at math, and definitely can’t play a sport. They’re also talkative, with a fondness for gossiping and of course, shopping. These are just some of the everyday stereotypes women around the world have to deal with.
But apart from this some more things have been seeing the day of light, that is their choices. Women, especially celebrities, are always under scrutiny for their choices. Online abuse has become an everyday facet of misogyny. These incidents that happened lately not only prove that our society is still unkind to women but also shows how intrusive we are in other people’s lives.
Starting with a piece of undergarment cloth, or the lack of it, managed to rattle the hypocritical standards of gendered dignity our society upholds. Malaika Arora who has shared a picture in a plunging neck dress collapsed with the trolls.
Arora’s bralessness, for instance, prompted trolls to attack her for everything else that bugs them about an independent woman – her choice to pick a younger partner, of not fitting the ideals of a middle-aged woman, of having an unconventional career path in the arts.
Another issue came up when the striking Priyanka Chopra surrogacy update fired up internet trolls who are finding it hard to digest that the superstar took an unconventional route to motherhood. Criticism directed the 39-year-old’s way ranges from accusing her of ‘using’ another person’s body in a bid to save her own from the pressures of pregnancy, to questioning the kind of mother she will become since she hasn’t birthed the baby herself.
The sanctimonious lecturing began soon after. Where some were concerned their beloved desi girl transgressed the cultural norms of ‘natural’ motherhood, others were critical of the apparently unethical manner in which people – the rich crowd, to be precise – relegated the task of producing children to surrogate mothers for a sum.
Not only this, as we all know that the health experts across the globe believe that breast milk is the best nutritional choice for a newborn child, as it has the right amount of protein, sugar, fat, and most vitamins that helps a child to grow and develop.
While it is considered the biggest blessing for an infant, a certain section of society still finds it taboo. When we witness Evelyn Sharma sharing her journey and raising voices in favour of breastfeeding on social media platforms and while doing so, she faced backlash and was trolled.
She was mercilessly trolled for posting a picture on her Instagram handle in which she was breastfeeding her daughter Ava Bhindi.
Hence, it has been clear that be it 1990, 2000, 2020 or 2022, women were and are still being targeted for choosing what to wear, who to marry, how to embrace motherhood, to breastfeed their child and the list goes on.
