She may be a Bollywood actress but Deepika Padukone spoke for all women when she took on a leery tweet from The Times of India about her cleavage. Her stand against sexism saw 8,000 retweets and the #IstandWithDeepikaPadukone hashtag was trending on Twitter.
The newspaper posted a picture of Padukone's breasts - see below - which the actress screengrabbed and replied: "Supposedly India's LEADING newspaper and this is NEWS?":
She then added:
You'd think the newspaper would issue an apology, but in the same manner of a groper saying his victim should be glad of the attention, they responded that it was meant as a compliment.
If it really was a Compliment, then why you deleted that tweet? #IStandWithDeepika#FindingFannypic.twitter.com/7GIM5YsKOp
Sexism isn't just rife in India of course, it's a global issue. But in a country where it is officially the worst place in the world to be a woman (yes, even ahead of Saudi Arabia, it is becoming increasingly important that Bollywood stars - who are viewed as virtual gods by the masses - take these issues head on.
Last October reported the BBC, actress Mallika Sherawat refused to retract her statement that "Indian society is regressive for women", which led to a heated clash with a reporter.
Padukone's point is a valid one. And if Times of India sincerely think that they were paying her a compliment, perhaps it's one they should extend to male celebrities with the caption: "OMG, so-and-so is having a great ballbag day!!"
See what we mean?
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