Woman's Body More Precious: Salman Khan Chooses To Police Women Rather Than Teach Men

Some time back, Kisi Ka Bhai Kisi Ki Jaan actor Palak Tiwari said in an interview that Salman Khan had a strict rule on sets of the film for female actors which didn't allow low necklines or revealing clothes for them. Now, the actor has reacted to why he had such a rule for female actors.

During an interview on TV, Salman Khan was asked to react to Palak Tiwari claiming that he wanted girls on the Kisi Ka Bhai Kisi Ki Jaan movie set to be covered properly like good girls. The actor defended his rule and reportedly said it was better to cover women's bodies as it was precious.

He said that he didn't like the way men looked at women when they wore revealing clothes. They are somebody's sister, mother and wife and he made the rule to save them from that humiliation. However, his statement is facing backlash on the internet for being problematic.

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Salman Khan's No Low Neckline Rule

This statement is a lot considering that Salman Khan is well known for ripping his shirt in movies. In defence of his shirtless looks, all he said was that times were different back then. Social media was upset with the actor's misogynistic approach towards the issue of men looking at women in a wrong way. Instead of schooling men for their vile gaze and wrong intentions, he decided to police women for their clothes. Many users posted his shirtless pictures to call out the hypocrisy in his statement. Others called out his sexist solution to a sexist problem.

He reportedly said that the female actors were not given revealing clothes in the movie because he didn't want men to ogle at them while watching the movie and to make it decent enough to watch with family. What's problematic in this is that he thinks it's the clothes that are indecent and not the male gaze. If decency is the issue here then such men who ogle at every woman wearing a saree or anything else should be kept away from families.

If this rule was made to prevent makers from forcing female actors to wear clothes they were comfortable in, it would have been right. We have often heard cases when female actors had to wear attires they did not want to under the pressure of filmmakers. If it was to protect female actors from that pressure, then the decision would have been fine. But to take such a decision merely because men can't control their problematic gaze is absurd. This is where society starts restraining women to adjust and change their choices just because men can't be schooled or changed for the better.

Also, even if the decision was taken for protecting female actors, were they given a choice in this? They were not asked how they wanted their clothes to be. It is funny how male actors not only have the authority to decide what they want to wear or do in the film but can also decide what the female actors will wear. If they don't like it, the female actors ain't having it. Though times have changed, female actors still have little to no authority on movie sets even when it comes to their own clothes.

If the entire country can organise mass film watching events and birthday celebrations for Salman Khan, they can buy things on his request and even stay at home during lockdown after he released a message scolding them, they can also ditch such problematic behaviour. Celebrities like him can use their influence on people to promote equality and respectful behaviour towards women but they sadly never try to do so. Instead, they restrict women in their life and make them decent to that no indecent man can look at them with indecency.

Views expressed are the author's own.