Women’s Day Special: 5 B-town actresses that shut down societal remarks

Women’s Day Special: 5 B-town actresses that shut down societal remarks

In a world where women have always been considered as the inferior gender and their lives have been dictated by the lack of freedom of speech, it takes great courage and strength for a woman to fight against oppression and unfair societal norms. As years have gone by, women have learnt to stand up for themselves. Especially in the digital world, women are leaving no stone unturned to speak their minds and the sassy brigade of B-town actresses is no different. In the age of social media where trolls are constantly targeting female celebs, these actresses are giving it back and how. On the occasion of Women’s Day, check out these 5 Bollywood divas who shut down trolls and spoke against stupid societal norms.

Kangana Ranaut- Kangana, who is an outsider in the industry, made it big all by herself. She is possibly the only one who has openly spoken about the issue of nepotism in Bollywood. She has been known for voicing out her opinions vociferously and is a firebrand who is not afraid to go past the illusions of the industry. She is also gutsy when it comes to calling out celebrities who hide under the veil of maintaining an image. She has spoken about the wage gap, how women are underpaid as compared to their male counterparts. She is one of those few actresses, who is not afraid to call a spade a spade.

Priyanka Chopra- Around two years ago, when Priyanka had a meet up with PM Narendra Modi, people’s eyes were on her legs rather than their chat. Priyanka was trolled for showing too much skin when she wore a dress to meet the Prime Minister. Twitter users bashed her for not showing enough respect for the PM and trolled her for her “inappropriate” outfit. But that did not stop Priyanka from standing up for herself. She posted a cheeky picture of herself and her mum at the club both showing off their legs and captioned, “Legs for days. #Itsinthegenes.” That’s not all. Priyanka, when she made her Hollywood debut with Quantico, faced a lot of racism and she recalled losing a role because of the colour of her skin. She says “I was out for a movie, and somebody [from the studio] called one of my agents and said, ‘She’s the wrong—what word did they use? ‘Physicality.’ So in my defence as an actor, I’m like, ‘Do I need to be skinnier? Do I need to get in shape? Do I need to have abs?’ Like, what does ‘wrong physicality’ mean?’ And then my agent broke it down for me. Like, ‘I think, Priy, they meant that they wanted someone who’s not brown. It affected me.” Kudos to PeeCee for talking about her experience with racism.

Sunny Leone- While everyone knows about her past profession, not everyone supports the choices she has made in life. The former adult star is comfortable in her own skin and is proud to show it off. Even after becoming a recognized actress in Bollywood, Sunny has had to face several biases within the industry. With hypocrisy running rampant in our society, we are not surprised that petitions had been filed against her on the basis of obscenity by the so-called protectors of Indian culture. Even B-grade stars like Rakhi Sawant told her to go back where she came from. But Sunny, being the proud woman that she is, didn’t let all the hate hinder her career in Bollywood.  What we love about her is the way she handles a situation when she is asked about her past career. About two years ago, she had an interview with journalist Bhupendra Chaubey, who tried to slut-shame her and her response was amazing. She shot it down in the sweetest way possible. When asked about whether she would still do what she did, Sunny said, “100 per cent.” She added, “Everything that I’ve done in my life has led me into this seat. So, it’s a chain reaction that happens. Everything is a stepping stone to something bigger or better. That’s what life is all about.” When the journalist asked her about her experience in porn, she said, “I don’t have any horror stories. I wasn’t abused, I wasn’t beaten, I wasn’t molested and I wasn’t raped.” We have huge respect for Sunny Leone for being brutally honest and sweet at the same time.

Neha Dhupia – Neha was the recent target of body shaming. We all know that motherhood is a blessing and this B-town star recently gave birth to a beautiful baby girl. Mothers all over the world are aware of the weight gain issues post-pregnancy. But alas, some trolls just don’t get how difficult it can be to shed the extra pounds post-delivery. Female celebrities are always expected to look slim and sexy, and some social media users don’t shy away from stating their sexist expectations of how females should look. Neha Dhupia was the latest victim of body shaming after she was bashed for her post-pregnancy weight gain. Trolls were ruthless in bombarding the new mother with mean comments but Neha didn’t back down. Instead, she wrote on her social media, “I don’t owe anyone an explanation because fat shaming like this doesn’t bother me one bit. But I do want to address this as a larger problem because fat shaming needs to stop for EVERYONE not just celebs. As a new mom I want to be fit, healthy and energetic for my daughter. So I work out every day, sometimes twice a day because for me…’Fitness’ is a priority and not ‘fitting into’ society’s standards regarding looks. And I hope in the future people are kinder to each other while making such vapid and vile comments. To quote @pattonoswalt … “Be Kind. It’s chaos out there.” We give her a round of applause for speaking up against fat shaming.

Swara Bhaskar – Swara Bhaskar is known to be very vocal on each and every issue and has her unique way of shutting the trolls up. In Veere Di Wedding (2018), there was a scene that showed Swara masturbating and since then all hell broke loose among the netizens. She was trolled and was called mean names. The moral police shamed her, and there were some identical tweets by someone who was embarrassed while watching the movie with their grandmother. Swara, who’s not someone to take trash talk from people, tweeted back, ‘Looks like a certain IT cell sponsored the tickets- or definitely the tweets!’ You go, girl!

To conclude, these women have inspired us to not only stand up for ourselves but to take pride in every aspect of being a woman, right from knowing our worth to owning our sexuality. Happy Women’s Day to each and every woman out there!