Celebrity exposure: How much is too much

Is being a woman all about physical gratification?

The print and internet in India has recently been blazing with the news of Bollywood starlet Deepika Padukone’s recent feud with the news giant Times of India (TOI). Earlier this month, TOI published an article entitled “OMG: Deepika’s Cleavage Show!” featuring a surreptitiously taken video from a launch event Padukone attended last year. The video depicted what was probably a minor wardrobe malfunction, zooming in and pointing arrows at Padukone’s body unapologetically.

Needless to say, feminists, fellow celebrities and Padukone’s ever-increasing fan base went livid over the internet, claiming that the media house’s objectification of Padukone’ body was disrespectful. While on one hand India has been promoting female empowerment in the aftermath of the recent rape cases, the news quickly became a victim of sensationalism. When Padukone fought back by publically disparaging TOI for the video, the culprits replied saying “You looked so good that we wanted to make sure everyone knew.” In addition to this, TOI disregarded the entire story as a mere publicity stunt, saying “The video was originally posted on June 18, 2013 but Deepika kept silent over it for one year and chose to raise a furor and suddenly felt violated only during the release of her movie Finding Fanny.” The battle led to the hashtag I Stand By Deepika Padukone becoming the top twitter trend across India, retweeted more than 7,000 times in a day!

But while most came forth in support of the actor, some chose to focus on the bigger picture and what the incident implied for women of the subcontinent at large. Many critics argued that actors are themselves complicit in the media’s relentless objectification of women by virtue of the ‘item numbers’ they star in, most of which show them scantily-clad, dancing before a crowd of men. In fact, actor Pooja Bedi dared to argue that “If admiring and focusing on a woman’s assets is a crime, all item numbers should be banned.”

The entire incident has, nonetheless, reinstated what we already knew — women in the subcontinent are still judged and  stereotyped for the way they dress and look. Irrespective of cast, creed, social or economic status, women are still exploited and objectified everywhere. And while one might consider female celebrities to be exempted from such trivial social inadequacies because of the nature of their work, that is hardly the case. Closer to home, actor Veena Malik has been criticised for her choice of wardrobe time and again. More recently, VJ Mathira was questioned regarding her pregnancy as she had managed to keep her marriage a secret thus far. This prompted the local bastions of morals to extract her marriage contract and its legalities and even calculate her exact date of conception! It didn’t matter that perhaps the ladies were doing great. Instead, we chose to rip them apart for reasons that are none of our business. It is no wonder that Mathira responded by tweeting that, “Being an artist, you’re public property. But why would people have issues with your married life? We will never have a naya Pakistan.”

Surprisingly, things are only a little less bleak in the West as countless Hollywood celebrities have also fallen prey to female disfranchisement. On August 31, nude photographs of actors Jennifer Lawrence, Lea Michele, Kate Upton and Kirsten Dunst were leaked online, proving that no matter how famous they might be, they are still women and therefore, exploitable and vulnerable. In fact, there are numerous detailed articles and forums running online which compare body parts of different celebrities to find the ‘perfect’ ones. Little consideration is given to their talent and work. One might even argue that these pictures were leaked deliberately to hinder their career development. Such could be the case of outspoken celebrity feminist Emma Watson who became the butt of a nude pictures hoax following her recent speech about gender equality at the United Nations.

But what still remains unanswered is exactly who is to blame for this. If releasing private pictures of female celebrities is the problem then should posing for such pictures not be the problem as well? Of course, with today’s advanced photography and picture editing, fabricating such images is quick and easy but what about the likes of Miley Cyrus and Kim Kardashian, who are notorious for their explicit activities? There appears to be a grey area between too much and too little exposure and this is precisely where prominent female celebrities like Padukone find themselves at a loss. “When an actress’s inner wear decides to do a peek-a-boo, she most definitely didn’t step out with the intention to do so,” wrote Padukone on her Facebook profile. She also insisted that her retaliation was against such regressive tactics being used to draw readers’ attention but how does one know for sure?  Where do we draw the line between exposure and overexposure?

Perhaps the problem lies in not knowing when to draw the line between an individual’s personal and public personas. Judging from the current tabloid and paparazzi culture, one can conclude that we often regard that our celebrities as our property, butting our noses in their life on and off camera. Perhaps this is what makes us feel like we have the right to celebrate or defame them as we please.

Taylor Swift, Emma Watson, Beyoncé Knowles

Teen idols for feminism

Emma Watson is the latest celebrity to defend feminism and gender inequality. In August 2013, singer-songwriter Taylor Swift said she recently realised that “being pro-women doesn’t make you anti-man”.  In fact, pop singer Beyoncé Knowles also supports feminism and at VMA 2013 she performed in front of a huge white sign that said ‘Feminist’.

Vanessa Williams

Did you know?

Vanessa Williams was supposed to be the first African-American woman to be crowned Miss America 1983.

Williams, an American singer, actor and a former fashion model, however, bever recived the crown after Penthouse magazine bought and published nude pictures of her. The crown was then given to the 1st runner-up Suzette Charles of New Jersey.

Published in The Express Tribune, Ms T, October 5^th, 2014.