Bollywood Hot Breast

Sigh…are we still having these types of conversations in 2014?!? C’mon people!

Bollywood beauty Deepika Padukone has recently made headlines, and she is pissed. In a country like India where the majority of news stories lately are about the horrific rapes, murders and hangings of young women, it’s no surprise that the actress would be outraged when a major Indian media outlet decided perpetuating harmful gender stereotypes was “newsworthy”.

The Time of India, supposedly one of the most respected and widely known news sources in India, tweeted a video compilation of boob shots from a variety of Deepika’s films. Deepika saw it and shocked that she was the subject of blatant sexism, and decided to tweet her anger:

Supposedly India’s ‘LEADING’ newspaper and this is ‘NEWS’!!??

— Deepika Padukone (@deepikapadukone)

The Times of India then responded to her outrage claiming it was a “compliment” and that they wanted everyone to know how great she looks. Ummmm, ok… The biggest problem with that idiotic response is that they weren’t complimenting Deepika as a whole person, but focusing on one specific part of her body, sexualizing it for entertainment’s sake, and effectively dismembering her worth down to just a body part.

Let’s be clear, telling a woman how great her boobs are and talking about them on her behalf is NOT a compliment. Talking about her intelligent, her success, her creativity, her ability to care for others, the way she deals with difficultly and how she advocates for other people is a compliment. How embarrassing that a major media outlet doesn’t even know the difference!

But simply tweeting her disgust at the TOI and having many of her fans support her wasn’t enough. In the name of true female empowerment, Deepika decided to write titled ‘My Point Of View’ about the inherent problem with this situation. And let’s be clear, it wasn’t just that they were talking about her body and calling her sexy:

There is only ONE sign that a woman wants to have sex and that is that she says “YES”.

The reason I write the above line is because we all know that in India we are so desperately trying to make a change in the way sections of our society think in order to move towards a happier world devoid of inequality, rape, fear and pain.