Social media should promote one's work freely and address issues
KARACHI: Celebrity endorsements about gender equality have recently begun. Whether it’s a male or female employee, they should have the same rights. However, some people take this issue too far. Actresses, both Hollywood or Bollywood, sometimes complain about not being paid as much as their male co-stars and say the industry is very biased towards women. They have not considered that other actors might have a bigger fan following than them, which results in bigger numbers when it comes to selling movies. The pay gap is not a gender equality issue as most upcoming and current actresses are making it out to be. Actors who were in the industry longer made that amount of money after spending years in struggle when there was no social media to freely promote one’s work.
While female celebrities complain about their few millions, we have daughters born in families that would rather have them buried alive because they are considered a disgrace to their family. Here, women are considered a burden and forced into marriage with someone they don’t know. Girls in coeducation are looked down upon. When she walks out on the street, men will stare at her and hoot but when her brother walks on the same street, he is not bothered. We live in a century where women dominate all fields, whether in business, education or politics but we are still way behind.
If Bollywood and Hollywood actresses want to address the gender equality issue, then it shouldn’t be about who’s getting paid how much. Instead, it should be about saving daughters from being buried alive just because they are female, to help women that are subjected to domestic violence and can’t turn to their families for help because it’s considered a disgrace. Just because you live in a society where you don’t get to witness such deplorable issues, there are many countries still facing them and they should use their social media platforms to help them rather than ask for equal pay.
Shujia Aimen
Published in The Express Tribune, September 19th, 2016.
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