Desi Moms Are Ruling Social Media, But Why Are We Amused?

Clad in a saree, with her hair loosely made up in a bun and a red bindi adorning her forehead, she strums the strings of a guitar to play “Believer” with her son. I watch in awe as the number of likes and hearts for this video of a mum playing the guitar almost effortlessly changes with every time I blink. This is the latest cool mamma video to have caught social media’s fancy. She isn’t the first though. Indian mummas to grown up millennials like me are acing social media and we are amused. Why? Because we do not see our regular bindi and saree clad mums as cool and that’s a shame, because they are.

Swag level = Mom@Imaginedragons pic.twitter.com/zrEEsoWDRA

— InUth (@InUthdotcom) November 27, 2019

KEY THINGS:

• Video of a mom strumming “Believer”  with her son is doing rounds on social media.
• Moms with grown up kids are taking over social media, although a lot of millennial kiddos seem to be amused.
• Why do we have such a hard time seeing our saree and bindi clad mummas as cool?
• These women deserve all the accolades not because they are mummies to grown up kids, but because they are having the time of their life on social media and are good at what they do.

Moms dancing with their grown-up kids, making fun TikTok videos and even flaunting work out regimes that’ll leave you sweating, are trending every now and then on social media.

We the snobbish millennials cannot believe that Ma can be so cool. Don’t you roll your eye whenever your mumma leaves an embarrassing comment beneath your pictures on Insta or Facebook? Don’t you complain about how she replies to all the good morning messages on the family WhatsApp group separately, every single day? Ma and smartphones is a combination which gives grown up kids nightmares, and if you add social media to the equation, then lord help you! But then when was the last time you sat down with your mom and had a chat with her regarding social media? Do you simply yell at her when she shares a misleading hoax video on her timeline, threatening to unfriend her, or do you explain it to her why she shouldn’t have done so?

ALSO READ: Children As Social Media Influencers: Do We Give Into Juvenile Demands?

Let us face it, our mums are very smart. In fact I have no qualms saying that my mum is much smarter and cooler than I am. She recently threatened my sister into getting her a Netflix account, because she was done and dusted with all the “badhiya” shows on other streaming platforms. After all, mummas brought us up and still deal smoothly with our millennial incompetence at adulting properly. All they need is someone to initiate them into the world of social media and explain to them properly how it works.

Would you have patronised a 20 something woman for acing locking and popping? Or mouthing dialogues like a pro from a cheesy 90s film? Then why are you amused when a mumma does it? Is it her saree, or her bindi, or her age? Or is it your mindset?

But the problem is that us grown up are quite susceptible to internalising patriarchy without even realising. We leave the agenda of championing women at our doorsteps, where the stereotypical upbringing that projects mums as anything but cool takes over. She may be running the home and calling the shots, but she is mom. How could she look cool playing a guitar in a saree? How can she be capable of making videos that’ll go viral? We refuse to see it, and when someone else's mommy becomes an overnight sensation on social media, we cannot stop fawning over her. Would you have patronised a 20 something woman for acing locking and popping? Or mouthing dialogues like a pro from a cheesy 90s film? Then why are you amused when a mumma does it? Is it her saree, or her bindi, or her age? Or is it your mindset?

These women acing social media deserve all the love and praise from us, but not because we are amused that they could do it. But because they did it despite all the obstacles such as a judgemental gaze and patriarchal upbringing which conditioned many generations of women to be quiet and demure. Because they can match the skills and stamina of their kids and encourage many others like them to not let age or their status as mothers to grown up kids discourage them. Here’s to more mums going viral on social media, for all the right reasons.

Image Credit: Manrepepller.com

ALSO READ: Why Is Marriage Made To Be A Coveted Trophy For Women?

Yamini Pustake Bhalerao is a writer with the SheThePeople team, in the Opinions section. The views expressed are the author’s own