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Deepika Padukone cleavage show controversy: An Open letter to ‘feminists’
There has been a huge controversy over something that doesn't deserve it.
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Hello Wise ‘Feminists’ of our society,
A lot has been spoken about Deepika Padukone‘s cleavage of late. It could have been avoided if she hadn’t spoken about it. What Times of India Entertaiment did with their video and tweet was wrong, but her tweet just increased its circulation, which all the wise heads of our society believe was unfortunate. To add to the misfortune was the fact that the Bombay Times was unduly judged for just doing their job of defending the main paper’s entertainment section.
Yes! Whoever made that video and the journalist who defended the publication were just doing their job, no matter how dirty it seemed. Most journalists are liberal and believe in women’s rights and equality as much as you do. But the job demands it. There is an audience every journalist is catering to and a section of it prefers reading sleazy gossip over reading serious news.
In fact, you as a reader are doing exactly the same right now. This is a similar audience to the one that opens the supplementary advertorial before they open the main newspaper and ironically she is front page news quite frequently in that. Sensationalism is a regular feature here and even Bombay Times doesn’t consider itself a newspaper. It calls itself a “Paid Advertorial”.
While one might talk about the media’s hegemony in propagating views and opinions, all journalist understands very well that just following ethics will not gets them the readership. The Hindu came out with their open letter to The Times of India, asking the leading newspaper to either keep quiet or apologize. It also went on to say that while approaching different media differently is fine, what does not change is the ethics of journalism. It should be noted that while The Hindu follows journalistic ethics and editorial values more, The Times of India has better sales. ToI also does good journalism, something which has been drowned by the controversy. The sensationalist stuff just finances it. So, it can be said that while Hindu follows ethics and values strictly, ToI knows how to balance commerce and ethics better.
While putting circles is inappropriate and stoops to an even lower level than traditional Showbiz stories, sexism in entertainment journalism and entertainment in general is not new. Putting circles is not a registered trademark of BT and has definitely happened before with other actresses as well. Katrina Kaif has one for sure on YouTube and it is as distasteful, if not more, but it has over 150,000 views. The link for it will not be provided here for the sake of journalistic ethics. (I was searching for it as part of my research. I request the wise ‘feminists’ of our society to not judge me for that!)
There have been many feminists making remarks about journalistic ethics, and so have you in your tweet. While it deserves respect it is quite misplaced and hypocritical. To sell a movie an item number is added. People might not remember Tees Maar Khan as it was a flop but they will remember ‘Sheila Ki Jawaani’. Very few people watch a well made documentary like Katiyabaaz but a glamorous movie with an item numbers like Chennai Express will fetch over Rs 100 crore. By the way, Katiyabaaz doesn’t even have a synopsis on IMDb.
An item number usually increases viewership. In the same way, a sensational piece with a sexist headline gets more viewership. An article with a headline like, “OMG! Deepika has cleavage” is bound to get more viewership than “Deepika is wearing clothes and is not naked”. Journalists just knows out of experience what will work for them. Showbiz journalists would not have a story without the sexist headline as this Huffington Post article aptly puts it. (Read If Headlines Treated Women Like People, Not Objects) It is just like directors who know that adding item numbers to their movies which, frankly, would not have ideally been in the script will increase their viewership. Of course, it is easier to abuse the journalist and the news publication because sexism here is very apparent.
The next point that most ‘feminist’ have made is about consent. Yes! The Times of India tweet and video was extremely distasteful. But she would be naive if she does not know that there is a section of media, and especially in Showbiz, which is sensationalist. Pooja Bedi best describes it when she said, “When you are a public figure and you go out to a press event, you are bound to be dissected from your chipped nail polish to your repeated shoes. If admiring and focussing on a woman’s assets is a crime, all item numbers should be banned. How fair is it to say, I will dress to tantalise publicly, but you have to look the other way?”
Instead, by commenting on the tweet she gave the article greater viewership than what it would have got if she had kept quiet. It is important to speak out against the sexist elements of our society but in this case, by speaking out she only made it worse. The media house being blind to their error did not improve the situation either. The Bombay Times had given an extremely ludicrous defense as well when it equated Deepika posing for photographs as license to make sexist remark. But then isn’t that the way their business works?
There have been allegations that Deepika Padukone did it only to gain mileage and publicity for her film. While it is unproven and is almost ridiculous, her reaction to the tweet has inadvertently but certainly gained attention. The “feminist” can debate on how appropriate it is.
The word “feminist” has been put in quotes to highlight the difference between the people abusing the publication and the journalist, (who are frankly just doing their work) and the feminists who are willing to think about the alternate view.
Sincerely,
A Journalist
(The writer usually writes on Politics and occasionally Tech and Sports. But the huge number of abuses against Journalists provoked him to do it.)
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