OPEN LETTER: Dear Kangana, Stop being a pseudo feminist

Dear Kangana, 

Kangana, you are one of the finest actor we have today. Your contribution to Hindi Cinema is immense. (Refraining from using Bollywood). You have always raised certain issues that have put you into controversies. I have always been your advocate but your recent statement made me cringe.

You said,” I think if you are an Indian woman, you should know how to drape a saree.”

I ask, Why ?

If Indian women are expected to wear a saree then why don’t Indian men wear a dhoti.

Your recent appearance at Cannes was spectacular to say the least where you wore a saree designed by the ace fashion designer Sabyasachi Mukherjee. Again the designer’s statement appalled me.

He said,” I think, if you tell me you do not know how to wear a saree, I would say shame on you. It’s a part of our culture, you need to stand up for it.”

I mean, Really? A shame on every women’s part?

Doesn’t his own models bring him shame when they don’t know to drape a saree ? He says he is apologetic for his comment but the mess has already been created by insulting ‘Indian Women’.

Kangana, you too seem to be in tandem win Sabyasachi’s statement. And I wonder where is the Kangana who spoke ferociously on issues others never dared to.

You called Karan Johar ‘the flag bearer of nepotism’. I completely agree. You spoke for pay parity and equality at workplace which I supported. But this is something I can’t agree with.

Why does our identity and culture have to be confined to what we wear? Why should Indian women be expected to know how to drape a saree? When did a garment become bigger than an identity?

It’s bizarre that the actor, who has championed the cause of women by supporting them boldly and won the hearts through  blockbusters ‘Queen’ and ‘Tanu Weds Manu’ has provided rather narrow parameters for Indian culture and indirectly shamed the ‘WOMEN’ fraternity by commenting this lunatic statement.

We Indian women need change, we need freedom from this mentality. It’s a racket out there who want to shame women for the clothes that they wear, their late night outings, drinking, smoking.

Until and unless women themselves take a stand for their freedom nothing is going to change miraculously.

Yours ardent fan.

(The writer is a blogger and a poet)

(This is an opinion piece and the views expressed are the author’s own.  The POST neither endorses nor is responsible for them.)