You’ve To Admit Rhea Chakraborty’s ‘Let’s Smash The Patriarchy’ T-shirt Was Pretty Cool. Here’s The Story Behind It

You’ve To Admit Rhea Chakraborty’s ‘Let’s Smash The Patriarchy’ T-shirt Was Pretty Cool. Here’s The Story Behind It

The arrest of Rhea Chakraborty seemed like a joyous occasion for the whole country while it hasn’t even been established that she was involved in abetment of the suicide of actor Sushant Singh Rajput or money laundering related to the case. She has already been branded as witch, gold digger and what not, and continuously tormented during the whole investigation process by the media and trollers who seem to have nothing better to do in life.

Rhea was in a place where everything and anything she did or said was scrutinised and criticised, even if it was not intentional. The so-called defenders of law and justice seekers stooped so low that from her ‘sorry, babu’ statement at the funeral to the choices of her clothing, everything was being used against her. Case in point, her choice of outfit on the third day of NCB investigation. She wore a black tee that had a message which read, “Roses are red, violets are blue. Let’s smash the patriarchy, me and you.” It sparked countless think pieces and none of them hit the bull’s eye.

People accused her of portraying herself as a hapless victim of patriarchy which, despite being very much present even today, had nothing to do with her case. I agree. However, the thing is, the statement-making T-shirt went viral because that t-shirt’s message encapsulated everything that was going on with her perfectly. And Bollywood used it show support for Rhea.

A quick search revealed that the t-shirt was from a website called The Souled Store and it’s listed under the Girl Power section. Quite aptly also. But there’s more to it. This t-shirt was made as part of a campaign named “Roses are Red” which was started in 2018 with the view to stop the stigma around periods, which stems out of deep-rooted patriarchal norms in the Indian society. The idea was to raise awareness about menstrual hygiene especially in the rural areas. The collection also raises funds to provide sanitary napkins to rural women. A lot of Bollywood celebs including Dia Mirza and Rahul Bose have been a part of the campaign. Vidya Balan, Jim Sarbh, Radhika Apte and Sonam Kapoor posted the quote with #JusticeforRhea. Sure, the quote was taken out of context from what its original intended purpose was but at this point, it fits right in too. With the kind of treatment being minted out of Rhea, we think there’s plenty of patriarchy at play here.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CE4XUL6Hr7u/

Also Read: The Gleeful Celebration Of Rhea Chakraborty’s Arrest Shows How We Have Messed Up Priorities

When she arrived for the NCB probe wearing the famed T-shirt, users started posting nasty comments about he she got the time to wear a customised Tshirt to make a strong statement and gain sympathy. A user also commented questioning how is she managing varied outfit every day and why isn’t she sticking to her white salwar-kurta anymore? This really makes me sick. Are you seriously going to find fault in her clothes too? Wasn’t her character, intentions and values enough?

This whole incident is a proof how some people think out of their asses and won’t leave a stone unturned to put a woman down without even knowing the whole story. It didn’t take a second thought for the people to twist the truth and slam Rhea for what she didn’t even do. I don’t think she was even thinking of making a strong statement through fashion at this point. I mean, she was going through a suicide investigation. There’s a fair chance she didn’t even think about the T-shirt before throwing it on that day but that didn’t stop Twitter from going ‘how dare she’? Can we try and stop making assumptions and holding people accountable for something they didn’t on the basis of what we think is true? Let’s do that, me and you.

Also Read: Guilty Or Not, Nothing Justifies The Media Mobbing Rhea Chakraborty. The Invasion Of Her Personal Space Needs To Stop

Anjali Agarwal

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