By Zoya Khan for TwoCircles.net,
A lot has been said about the recent Vogue campaign which claims to empower women by having to make their own choices. Well I have something to say, and I will say it not because I have the choice to but because I have the option to. To exercise that option could be my choice. Most certainly it is not the case. Our choices are driven by the current market situation and are dependent on the dynamics and functioning of the markets. It is amidst this that the choices we make are heavily market-oriented.
I speak, read and write Hindi and English fluently. The fact that my laptop allows me to write in English and there is no way I can type in Hindi, limits my options and hence I have no choice but to proceed in English. I must apologise to all those who have limited or no knowledge of this language as they will not be able to read what I have to say. I must also apologise to all those who do not have access to the internet and can in anyway follow the recent debate about ‘choices’ of women.
Deepika Padukone Controversial Ad My Choice… by showbizalert
Vogue’s recent campaign starring Deepika Padukone and some known celebrities among 99 other women has created a wide range of responses. We have seen women standing up against it; we have seen women standing for it. Similar responses were seen coming from men. Firstly that she says that you are my choice out of 7 billion people means we must also not limit ourselves to India, when she talks about the world.
The video has a line wherein she talks about the choice of choosing the partner of her choice: “My choice to love a man, or a woman, or both”. When she says ‘both’ it implies they implicitly stand for LGBT rights. However none of the responses against or for it were spoken from the point of view of this community. What I read at most was limited to the rights of men or women. No mention of even the third sex whatsoever. Even the video mostly states men as the ‘YOU’ against ‘MY’ choice. This can be seen from one of the next lines “My choice; to have your baby”. I am aware of the many shortcomings of this video, but I wish to shed light on some which have not been talked about earlier.
Now if we are talking about choices, and the choice of a woman to have a baby or not, let’s be fair and give everyone the right to make choices or at least give them the option. Nature has endowed woman with the power to procreate and sustain life within her body. However the choice to have a child should not merely be the choice of the woman alone. The partner’s say is as important. (I would like to clarify my stance here; Medical complications or pregnancies arising out of rape not to be counted as they were not a woman’s choice.) This statement certainly needs scrutiny, as it brings in the whole debate of questioning the survival of an unborn life. According to your choice you have sex (in your marriage, outside your marriage or before your marriage); the consequence is that you become pregnant. It was not the choice of the unborn in the womb to be brought into existence, but the very chance of its survival depends on your mere ‘choice’ to give birth to it. It is no doubt that survival is the basic instinct of human beings, then why is the unborn not given that choice to survive. The choice of an unmarried mother to bring a life into this world should also be brought up. That would be empowerment. To have a child without the surname of her/his father would be empowerment. Many abortions arise out of the fear of society’s judgment. However this video fails to even promote that. Why do I say so? I say so, because I fail to see any responses or talk about this. Hence the message is clearly distorted. Another perspective could be if the woman does not want to conceive the baby. She does this as per her choice, however what of the wishes and wants of her partner?
I too have a thing to say about adultery too. I go to a government office; I know that I have the option of paying a bribe to the clerk to get my work done easily without any hassles. Would that be moral? My CM Kejriwal advises me against it. Change begins at the individual level. If I choose to exercise the option of paying the bribe I become corrupt. Corruption is immoral. This statement goes uncontested. So is lying and cheating on someone who places his/her trust in you. Well she certainly knows that when she says: “My pleasure might be your pain”. So just for your pleasure (not happiness) you are ready to cause pain? It’s a question worth asking. Some of the responses I read were naive enough to say, that “it is about the choices, not about right or wrong; people are well aware of its consequences” or “the choice of woman to be an adulterer, does not mean people have the right to call her a slut” or “she is not asking for your judgments” etc, following in the same spirit. There is something very interesting such as an idiom/proverb or a ‘muhavara’ (in hindi), which if taken literally has no meaning at all but the undertone is strong enough to convey the message. Hence, it is not necessary what we want to say, is always explicitly mentioned but we must look at the implicit message too. The fact that many people find the video inspirational, while some have quite the opposite opinion means that everyone has their own interpretations of the undertones and not the explicit message. Otherwise words like “I am infinite like universe in every direction” have no meaning; because human beings are a tiny part of the universe. (Also the person who wrote the script must know that universe is infinite, there is no need to add ‘every direction’, we know that much science, English and logic or perhaps he/she does not!)
I could go on line by line analysing the script but it will not lead to any conclusion. It must be brought forth that this video is clearly a selective advertising strategy by a company who stands to conform to the male notions of beauty. The fact that it uses English as a medium to communicate eliminates those who cannot speak or understand the language. More than 200 million people in India have no access to electricity. And then there are those who have power but not basic necessity to connect to the internet. And then there those in the other parts of the world who, like these many Indians do not have access to electricity or even shelter for that matter. How will they then see what is trending on the internet and what is not? This is clearly meant for the elite.
Karl Marx was indeed right when he said, “The mode of production of material life determines the social, political and intellectual life process in general. It is not the consciousness of men that determines their being, but, on the contrary, their social being that determines their consciousness”. As an urban girl, pursuing education, it is not my choice of clothes, when I come back home or whether I can have sex before marriage or outside marriage that bothers me. For me, to be able to study, to get a job which fits my educational profile, to travel safely both during day and night are utmost priorities. The elite have enough money to not worry about jobs; they definitely don’t have to face the daily struggles of women who travel in public transport. A Chinese proverb says “If you are planning for a year, sow rice; if you are planning for a decade, plant trees; if you are planning for a lifetime, educate people”. Clearly education is real empowerment. However, to talk of empowerment as a matter of choice is clearly misguided. Choices arise out of options that we have. To be able to exercise those options is a choice. Merely saying choices empower women would be wrong. When a person has the ability, which enables him/ her to exercise those options is true empowerment.
Because your choice of clothes will not help in educating another woman, because cheating on your husband as per your choice will not help save a female unborn life, because no matter how late you come home it will still not help some girl get nutrition equivalent to a boy; it is then when I fail to understand how is this empowerment!
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(Zoya Khan is a Research Scholar (Economics) from Jawaharlal Nehru University. )