Deepika’s episode: Harvard University students campaign topless

To walk down the street in India as a woman is to understand the complexity, discomfort surrounding feminism and women’s rights in India. Whatever one wears, however unengaged and stoic one may be, the very presence of a women in a public, likely male-dominated space, ‘invites’ attention. Those that might show a shoulder or a midriff? Well, they’re obviously ‘asking for’ the leers, the whistles and the lip-smacking.

It’s a troubling phenomenon that involves the invasion of private space, the unwanted sexualization of women, and a lack of autonomy. The buck for who will safeguard the rights of women in India is one that has been passed rapidly and frequently between many slippery hands: the government, the police, civil society. Its passage into the hands of the media, however, has proved to be particularly disheartening with the recent public of, “Dear Deepika, our point of view…” by the Times of India. While their staff is surely indulging themselves in congratulatory backslaps for their paltry witticisms, what they sadly fail to realize is the precedent they are setting in the perception of women’s bodies in India. By failing to understand the ripple effects of their actions, the press (if one can call The Bombay Times such) compounds the difficulties for women in this country as much as a leering passerby.

In their recent op-ed, the Times of India asks mockingly if Deepika thinks that they should ask her for permission every time they print her picture. What Priya Gupta and her associates do not understand is the intent behind the publications photographs: Consent, of course, to the Times of India, is a laughing matter, and public shaming, apparently, is an acceptable tool to make a point.

Publishing a picture of a person’s breasts, surrounded by red arrows and circles, is ultimately no better for a woman than being ogled on the street: it is an act equally lacking in consent, and one that has much greater potential to harm and violate a victim. Yet, this is not the vocabulary one sees used by the Times of India, because a woman going to a bar in a “slutty” outfit is asking for it. A woman out at night, is a hypocrite—if she’s such a smart, independent woman, she should know better. If she gets raped, shame on her for losing her virtue. If we cannot expect the press—the philosophical ‘Fourth Estate’ and protector of our democratic rights—to show women respect, how can we start to expect respect for the state? Public discourse on women’s rights in the media and in civil society is couched in offensive and insufficient rhetoric, as are many of the articles of this publication.

Why does Deepika Padukone and the Times of India issue touch such a nerve? Perhaps, one expects that the largest English daily in the world, in addition to using proper and appropriate language, might aspire to a greater ideal than sales. If anything, it is in the watchdog of the press that citizens have placed their faith and hope. They are met, unfortunately, not with a publication that chooses to genuinely highlight social issues, but with one that splashes color and advertising on tabloid trash. That a daily publication, however banal their content is, stoops to ad hominem attacks, the immature re-publication of photo-shoots, and utterly insipid arguments like: “Deepika, just for the record, we do not zoom into a woman’s vagina or show her nipples. As a newspaper, we take every care to ensure that we pixelate them if they show up in a picture.” (How mightily conscientious of them!) It is utterly abhorrent that the Times of India felt that “Deepika chose to raise a furor and suddenly felt ‘violated’ only during the release of her movie Finding Fanny,” and further, that writer Priya Gupta chose to put the word ‘violated’ in quotation marks, as though Deepika as a woman, her fears for her own and other women’s privacy, and the broader question of misogyny and the sexual objectification of women ought not be the legitimate concerns of the paper or the public.

This country’s voyeuristic relationship with female anatomy and femininity itself is fueled by poorly enforced legislation, wrist-slaps instead of court cases, and an acceptance of an unequal status quo. It is a toxic, perpetuating relationship that needs to stop. We need to start with the fundamental premise of ownership. We live in a society that views girls as an economic drain, and boys as an economic safety net. Girls, like property, are still chattel on the marriage market. On the streets, women are leered at like wares on display. Perhaps, it is no wonder then, that the Times of India feels that it too has a claim on Deepika Padukone’s body. It is this very concept of ownership—the very idea that a woman and her body can possibly be owned—that the Bombay Times is (hopefully) unwillingly perpetuating. This country needs its institutions, its men, and its women to defend a woman’s right to equality and respect.

This issue doesn’t just concern women. Everyone deserves to be treated with respect. We do not doubt that Indian men are capable of respect, love and affection towards women; and the movement we are launching includes both genders. It is time we speak meaningfully about these issues, and start to accept women for who they are and who they choose to be in the most holistic way.