Shobhaa De wrong about Indian Olympians; sexist attack on Twitter not right too
Shobhaa De earned Twitter's ire for a careless comment that sent our "national pride" hurtling towards nowhere. With the following tweet, Shobhaa De, more or less, established herself as the queen of gaffes, a "fliperal" [portmanteau of flippant liberal], who spends too much time worrying about "Kate Middleton's derriere" when not shooting herself in the foot by passing unnecessary judgements on our hardworking athletes with Olympic dreams.
Goal of Team India at the Olympics: Rio jao. Selfies lo. Khaali haat wapas aao. What a waste of money and opportunity.
— Shobhaa De (@DeShobhaa) August 8, 2016
But that storm in a tweet-cup notwithstanding, and despite the very well deserved counter comments from almost every sportsperson that India can boast of, what she received was the good old mix of outregeous sexism and misogyny packaged as nationalist pride.
Sample Abhijeet Bhattacharjee's gem of a response at De's salacious tweet:
Unstoppable shameless #बेशर्म बूढ़ीयाs .. abusing and cursing their own motherland, own children, own talents .. https://t.co/nMhy0xfhTF
— abhijeet (@abhijeetsinger) August 8, 2016
Naturally, this provoked some response, particularly from the ever vocal Sonam Kapoor, who too had been a target of online trolling from bhakts.
hypocrisy :- the practice of claiming to have higher standards or more noble beliefs than is the case.
— Sonam Kapoor (@sonamakapoor) August 10, 2016
Prompt response from "Abhijeet singer", dipped in his characteristic crassness, as always.
Yes @sonamakapoor we all r hypocrites bt not the Khandani FILMI type hypocrites nor page3, we r proud of our players https://t.co/sy8Q3o2sjd
— abhijeet (@abhijeetsinger) August 9, 2016
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| Free for all sexism at Shobhaa De's expense? Not cool, social media. |
Of course, Abhijeet Bhattacharjee was not alone. An entire army was unleashed on "anti-nationals" such as De.
Shobha De and Burkha Dutt seem to be siblings from different parents ! Megalomaniac, Narrow minded anti-nationals !! #ShobhaaSaySorry
— abhishek lenka (@gemsabhishek) August 9, 2016
#ShobhaaSaySorry would've been glad had d athletes got stones to pelt or arms to shoot at our soldiers,rather than hockey sticks & rackets
— Naimish Khare (@naimishkhare) August 9, 2016
@shounakray it takes decades of discipline, hard work, grit n God given talent to get there. Dnt expect porn writers to understnd @DeShobhaa
— Vande Mataram (@UnSubtleDesi) August 8, 2016
It is heartbreaking that in India, we must stoop to conquer, particularly exposing an ugly side wherein "teaching a lesson" to those we don't agree with boils down to rampant sexism, communalism, bigotry and misogyny.
*opens Twitter**reads Shobha De's tweet**gets mad at her**starts reading responses to her tweet**gets sad**then a little scared**WTF*
— Rohan (@mojorojo) August 9, 2016
Everytime you read a tweet that makes you angry - go through the replies to it and make a choice whether you want to be one of those people.
— Tanmay Bhat (@thetanmay) August 9, 2016
"Teaching a lesson" online is our national pastime, whether it's Shobhaa De or Sonam Kapoor at the receiving end, and whether it's a well thought out criticism of the present government or a snide remark dipped in snobbery.
However, occasionally, there's that gentle chiding, full of wit and elegance.
Hahaha.. the best thing I have seen today. #ShobhaDe #ShobhaaSaySorry pic.twitter.com/6m5YcUyp0h
— Anamika Nandedkar (@meg123nandu) August 9, 2016
Perhaps all is not lost?