Disha Patani Said She Is A Tomboy And Not Hot. Here’s Why Her Statement Is Subtly Sexist.
Imagine if tomorrow all the women in India woke up and shed all the inhibitions. What if all of us woke up one day and said ‘I am fucking beautiful and I don’t need anybody’s approval’? Women of all shapes, sizes, colour and personality types – just being who they are, without giving a fuck about beauty stereotypes. That would have been an ideal scenario, in an ideal world. But reality is that while a lot of us are constantly trying to break the shackling chains of societal norms, a lot of us don’t even realise we are tied down. In several ways, big or small, a lot of us reinforce stereotypes and that’s doing neither them nor anyone else any good whatsoever. Recently, Disha Patani spoke about how she is a “tomboy” and not a “hot person”. I wish I could tell her that these aren’t two mutually exclusive subsets and the world needs to know that.
In an interview with IANS, Disha said, “I don’t consider myself as a hot person. I am very much like a tomboy in real life. It’s only because of my photoshoots that people consider me to appear ‘hot’! I am a regular girl who believes in simplicity.”
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Firstly, why can’t a simple girl be hot? Why are we adhering to stereotypical notions of beauty? Secondly, who is a “tomboy” even? A girl who dresses in athleisure clothing, plays sport and possibly doesn’t put a lot of makeup? Why are we putting ourselves in boxes? This is simply assigning gender-biased qualities to sexes and really, we don’t need that anymore. Today, we are trying to make things fluid and break free from traditional roles – and this takes us back to square one. We don’t need to tell a woman she is not feminine enough if she doesn’t cook or wear ruffles. We don’t need to tell a man he is not masculine enough if he is sensitive.
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Also, by distancing yourself from other women, Disha Patani is implying that these qualities aren’t womanly. But hey, Jacqueline Fernandes trains really hard but she also wears cutesy dresses. Taapsee Pannu loves sports and plays squash and still doesn’t call herself a “tomboy.” Really, every woman is different with several layers of personality traits. We should refuse to be stereotyped.
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I understand, Disha doesn’t see it herself but only if she refreshed her perspective, she’d know she is hot – irrespective of her personality type!
