Here’s Why Deepika Padukone’s Women Empowerment Video Is Not Actually Empowering

The internet was hit by yet another tidal wave on Sunday, March 29, when a video advocating women empowerment was launched by a popular magazine Vogue, starring none other than actress Deepika Padukone. The video talked about how a woman is entitled to making her own choices without being brutally judged for them, with the hashtag #MyChoice being a top trend on social media websites.

Needless to say, the internet reacted strongly to the video that was deemed ‘powerful’. Among these people were many who did not have positive opinions about it. This article posted by Quartz India was of the opinion that this video was more hypocritical than empowering, and listed down valid points for the same. This started a thread on Reddit India, with people of a similar opinion discussing what exactly was wrong with the video and the message it delivered. Read on.

It was considered hypocritical of Vogue, a fashion magazine that ‘makes money off womens’ insecurities’, to come out with a video on women empowerment, and it clearly showed in the content of the video

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If I remember correctly, the narration stated that it’s a woman’s choice to be a size 0 or size 15. Oh, if only the pages of a glossy magazine would support it.

The video lacked personality. It didn’t say anything thought provoking to begin with. It only stated things that sounded powerful and farfetched, but it didn’t really have a lot of power, because at the end of the day, both Deepika and Vogue work in an industry where women are objectified shamelessly. When the thought behind the video was half-hearted, why would it resonate?

 

Deepika Padukone, the latest face of women empowerment after the infamous TOI incident, is also hypocritical in her ways. How? This

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I’m glad that Deepika Padukone called TOI out for the thing they did, and she might be all for her choice and everything, but can we look back for a second and talk about her being called a ‘firecracker’ in her item number in Happy New Year, or her endorsing Garnier fairness creams in the past? Does that not stand in the way of asking women to celebrate themselves and be who they are? If you’re adhering to the ridiculous standards of beauty yourself, you can’t preach someone else to be themselves.

 

In the video, Deepika’s narration stated that it is a woman’s choice if she wants to have sex outside of marriage. That doesn’t make any sense as a standalone statement, just like many other statements made in the video

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This particular statement did not go well with the audiences. Several people were of the opinion that while sex outside of marriage is about morals, if taken in the proper context, sex outside of marriage is acceptable if the people in question are in an open marriage. It could have been worded better so as to save all the outrage that it caused. Not to mention, if the other sex were to say the same thing, section 498A would have probably been the end of his life.

 

The video fails to talk about real issues

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The picture above is what women empowerment looks like – people in a village in Rajasthan plant trees whenever a baby girl is born there, because they’re fighting the declining sex ratio of 928 women to 1000 men.

The video fails to talk about the real issues here – issues like rape, the consequences of making decisions as a woman in India, and basically how much of a fight it is to be among people who are innately sexist without even realizing it. The tone of the video was more of a way to talk down to the people watching it, and maybe even showing one gender as the superior one. This video didn’t educate people about how to treat each other as equals. It did nothing.

In conclusion, the video did very little in promoting women empowerment, and gave a very distorted view of what feminism actually stands for.

After all, commercializing a sensitive issue is #TheirChoice.

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