If you haven’t yet watched the latest video starring Deepika Padukone declaring her choices, it’s okay, you still have time to catch up. The video has spurred as much backlash as it won praises, inciting articles from many female writers and bloggers and fans stating their disappointment. Shobhaa De, the popular Indian writer, wrote about the confusion created by the video, whether it was about women empowerment or an advert for an international shampoo brand and the volume it provides to a beautiful woman’s hair, just like Deepika’s.

One fan wrote a letter stating that the actress was biased when it came to women empowerment. I believe the AIB Roast of Ranveer Singh and Arjun Kapoor video showed her laughing at lewd jokes passed at someone masturbating to Farida Jalal and mentioned Simi Garewal’s dildo. But Deepika also came out strongly when the Times of India published pictures of her cleavage.

Now don’t be so harsh, I thought to myself, she is just a pretty girl who has all the right things going for her. She would be the perfect poster child to talk about women empowerment after her admission to being depressed and appearing on the Burkha Dutt show. That was brave of her as not everyone will admit to being depressed. But it also apparently qualifies her to take up issues that haunt women in Indian society—where female foeticide is highest in the world, where men in Bihar are literally carving a new path to bring in their new brides, and where, well, we haven’t forgotten the India’s Daughter documentary yet.

Men’s choice

And now, we have the liberty to watch the ‘men’s choice’ parody video too. Thanks to social media, the ‘men’s choice’ video too has gone viral and thank god for that, because I couldn’t bear to watch Deepika slipping off her dress and saying, “It’s my choice to have sex with whom I want”. The men’s choice video (yes, the men in the video are handsome) strikes the right note and it is subtle too. It doesn’t blame the woman’s choice video but in fact, deals with the subject more maturely by staying true to the message, ie, men and women should be respected for their choices equally and that if men choose to have sex with their girlfriends and choose not to marry them, then that too is their choice. Aren’t women being hypocrites when they blame their boyfriends for not marrying them or classifying their cheating husbands as dogs? Shouldn’t men have the right to choose too or have women in showbiz become so vain that they feel choice should no longer be the prerogative of men?

Many of my friends on Facebook have voiced their opinion against this statement and I write for all my friends who are equally harmed by this shampoo ad, oops, I mean, Deepika’s video. I don’t think any of my friends or I will be empowered if we chose to have sex outside of our marriage. It would simply mean we cheated. And it applies to both men and women.

Its time women in showbiz decide how they want to be empowered. Do they still want to be paraded in bikinis in item numbers while their male counterparts are fully clothed? Do they want to play femme fatales forever or do they want to start taking social cues as to how they want to portray themselves in their movies too?

Whose empowerment?

I also believe that the women appearing in the video don’t need any kind of empowerment; they all seem to be from the showbiz, fashion, and business industries. These women made a choice to be in their professions and if broadsheet media wants to sell their papers by publishing Deepika’s cleavage, that is their choice. She didn’t refuse to dance in bikinis to sell her movies and make money. While the video has managed to ridicule what empowerment is for women I hope the director and the artists appearing in the video take some grassroots lessons on how India is faring when it comes to women being treated equally, not just at the work place but at home too.

Appearing in chat shows and videos and talking about choice does not shed a positive light on the plight of millions of girls and women who face discrimination even in their mother’s wombs. It’s about time women as powerful as Deepika start lending their voices to serious social issues that not only concern her cleavage but also the millions of girls who don’t get to go to school simply because they are girls or  those who get raped because they are Dalits or girls who get married off as young as nine because of the dowry hassle.

I poke at social issues that bother me and sometimes I am biased when it comes to women empowerment, but this choice video has taken feminism to such new heights that even I can’t fathom.

Giri Bohara is fundraising and communication manager at Samriddha Pahad