We have no right to call Sunny Leone's skirt disgusting
It is difficult to fathom just what goes on in the minds of female actors before they appear in front of prying eyes of the public and media day in day out, who scrutinise every inch of their bodies almost as a matter of right.
The latest victim of this microscopic scrutiny is Sunny Leone and it's the actor's skirt that has failed to appeal to the "fine fashion sense" of fashion journalists. The India Today piece went on to say her skirt was "disgusting", which was uncalled for.
Leone wore a black skirt beneath a brown top while promoting her upcoming film, Tera Intezaar, with Arbaaz Khan. While the strappy top has been appreciated, the embroidery on the skirt has been dismissed as "tacky" and "shoddy".
The criticism of Sunny Leone's high-waist short, Madison skirt, reflects how difficult we have made it for actresses to be known for and by their work.
To talk about someone's clothes even when they are not part of a fashion show but out there just to promote their work is reflective of how we take no shame in crossing our boundaries and encroaching into territories that are the private preserves of individuals. Imagine, how it would feel to be run downfor your looks. Yes, Sunny Leone, is a public figure. We pay for tickets to watch her movies and so we also buy the right to reduce her to a commodity.
Right?
No. Wrong.
It’s hard not to doubt the intention of any attack directed at Leone. As a nation, we just can’t get over the fact that Leone in the past has been a successful porn star. She intrigues us by her sheer guts to own up to her past and sound “cool” about it. Leone challenges our hypocrisy about sex and porn. The smirks a mere mention of Leone can draw at any gathering or discussion is reflective of our own difficulty to come to terms with sex and how Leone is at ease with it.
According to a 2016 review by Pornhub, the largest porn website, India is the fourth largest consumer of porn worldwide, coming behind United States of America, United Kingdom and Canada. That this society cannot accept a porn star amid itself underlines hypocrisy of the worst kind. The only way we can get back at this Bollywood actor is by putting her to scrutiny for her clothes, her past, her lifestyle choices or just her existence.
When Leone adopted a child, a deeply private matter, people questioned if she wasn’t capable of producing a child herself. During an television interview by a well-known journalist, Leone was made to feel “alone and upset” because she once chose to star in porn videos, whose consumers abound in India.
Leone can draw solace from the fact that she is not the only one in Bollywood to draw criticism for her clothes. And all women in Bollywood can take comfort in the fact that it's a global phenomenon. Almost all actresses are routinely assessed for their fashion sense. No, it doesn't matter if fashion sense is a subjective matter. Headlines such as 10 best/worst dressed actresses with a picture gallery are instant click-accumulators. Ethics? Well, they be damned.
Forget their acting prowess, we believe female actors must first be able to match our fashion standards. The moment media cameras are able to catch even a glimpse of a female actor, she is transformed into a walking, talking advertisement for a fashion designer. From the colour to the cut of the outfit, we want to assess them for the minutest details.
This is reflective of the age-old mindset where actresses have been treated as "side dishes" in movies only with the limited objective of "visual relief". How well they shape their characters in the movies they work for is not an area of interest for this group of thinkers. At most film launches, or premiere, or award functions actresses are just about the outfits they wear - no more, no less.
A piece of advice that Leone had given people when Priyanka Chopra came under the eye of the storm - well, again for her attire during a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi - needs to be reiterated here. Leone said: "I know she (Priyanka) gives back to the society, she is good to people. Let's judge her based on her actions and not her clothes."
It would help if we could talk about what role Leone is playing in the movie that she was out to promote rather than the clothes she wore. We should stop measuring women in Bollywood by the length of their skirts, or the embroidery on it. It's time we gave them their due in the industry by talking about whether they did justice to the role they played or not. Possible?