Bhumi Pednekar Holds A Placard That Says Hero, Says The Word Is Gender Neutral. But It’s Not Really, Is It?

Bhumi Pednekar Holds A Placard That Says Hero, Says The Word Is Gender Neutral. But It’s Not Really, Is It?

I remember this one time in school, I had won a silver medal in swimming. I was probably 8 or 9 at the time and I brought the medal home to show to my grandmother so she would be proud of me. She was proud, she was so proud that she said ‘tu toh mera beta hai’ (you’re my son). She had good intentions obviously, but even at that tender age, it was obvious to me that being a beta, the male version of myself was a good thing. It isn’t offensive, at least at that time it wasn’t, because everyone who has said it to always had good intentions, but it still needled me every time I heard it. I soon realized every Indian daughter at one point, or another has had someone in her family say it to her and it sucks.

The reason I am narrating to you my intense dislike for the phrase is that I read saw something that gave me the exact same feeling. Akshay Kumar took to Twitter to announce the movie Durgavati and introduce its core team. The movie will star Bhumi Pednekar who is on a career-high right now. The post was by itself was pretty simple, it read “EXCITED to announce Bhumi Pedneka in & as Dugravati. A scary-thriller, going on floor mid-January. Presented by Cape of good hope films and @itsBhushanKumar, produced by @vikramix and directed by Ashok. Need your love and luck @TSeries @Abundantia_Ent.”

What bothered me was the picture he posted along with that caption. The picture depicted Bhumi Pednekar holding a placard that reads the word “hero”. Now, if you have even skimmed through our website you know that we are all for women empowerment, so our issue isn’t that a “heroine” is carrying a “hero” card. Our problem is that by Bhumi calling herself the hero of Durgavati, she is giving out the message that the parameters of success is still very masculine and that for any movie to be successful, there has to be a strong “hero”. It is the same message that the beta phrase gave out and is it really the message that we want to put out there? At this point, nope.

Also Read: Bhumi Pednekar Talks About The Changes Bollywood Is Going Through And We Completely Agree With Her

But this was about a month ago and Bhumi has already received a lot of flak for holding that placard. For the same reasons that we are talking about it – the subtle implication that success is masculine. The reason we are talking about it today though is that in a recent interview, while addressing the issue she said, “People need to look at the terms ‘hero’ and ‘heroine’ in a gender-neutral way, and not from the lens of Bollywood. If someone asks me who my ‘hero’ is, I’ll say, it’s my mother. I wouldn’t call her the ‘heroine’ of my life, would I?”

Also Read: Bhumi Pednekar Says She Doesn’t Mind Item Songs But Will Not Work In Anything That Involves Objectification Of Women. We’re Confused

https://www.instagram.com/p/B6fzjMopZcC/

We see her point, we really do, and we agree that we need a gender-neutral way not just in Bollywood but in every sphere. Like the word actor is now being used for both genders. But though her point was correct, and she had good intentions, the execution was all kinds of messed up. We will find our way to gender neutrality, I just don’t think this is the way to go because why do you have to be masculine to represent power? I just wish that post was her sitting in the chair like a boss holding a placard that read “heroine”, that would’ve been her owning it. Or maybe protagonist.

These are exciting times though, I never thought we would reach a stage in Bollywood where we would be discussing gender-neutrality.  So excited to see what’s next!

https://thehauterfly.com/lifestyle/bhumi-pednekar-talks-about-accepting-her-flaws-and-we-love-how-positive-she-is-about-her-body/

Mitali Shah

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