Neha Kakkar took to Instagram on December 18 to announce her pregnancy with a photo, featuring her husband Rohanpreet Singh, herself, and a prominent baby bump. Congratulations are pouring in for the couple= who tied the knot in October this year amidst extensive social media coverage. While well-wishers, including Kakkar's brother Tony Kakkar, and others from the industry like Harshdeep Kaur, Rochak Kohli, and Elli Avrram are congratulating the newly married couple on their pregnancy, others on the internet aren't as approving. That they believe their approval holds any merit is already bizarre. But trolls, down to work within minutes of the pregnancy announcement, are mocking, taunting, and sneering at Kakkar and Singh's pregnancy in the worst way, alleging it to be the "reason" behind their marriage.
A celebrity, by virtue of being a public figure, is fated to the ravages of the public glare, with masses of fans and naysayers watching them keenly, observing everything they do, speculating about their lives. While the phenomenon is common, the ethicality behind it is questionable. Because where does fanfare stop and voyeurism begin? Is it fair to expect celebrities to live at the cost of their privacy always being at stake? Should people mar Kakkar's pregnancy announcement with speculations about when she got pregnant or maliciously guessing the reason behind her marriage to Singh? Is the timespan between their life's checkpoints anybody's business except the parents-to-be?
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Social Media Reactions To Kakkar's Pregnancy
We rounded up some distasteful reactions to Kakkar's pregnancy for you:
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Why Must Anyone's Motherhood Be A Public Matter?
It's audacious how social media users are taking the liberty to question Kakkar and Singh on apparently shielding the news of their pregnancy all through their marriage. Jokes crassly range from the couple's "super-fast results" to memes on Kakkar's ex-boyfriend Himansh Kohli's reaction to her pregnancy. Should having social media at our disposal 24 by 7 come with the entitlement of poking fun at issues as sensitive as motherhood? Does the noise around a viral social media event warrant transgression of basic reverence for another person's decisions?
Similar underhanded disapprovals were collectively raised when Neha Dhupia's pregnancy came to light soon after her marriage to Angad Bedi in 2018. The actor was shamed on social media for being pregnant before she got married to Bedi. While it takes two to make a baby, the brunt of public opinion and mass judgment - with respect to motherhood - is something that usually falls on women. Because in India, pregnancy isn't just expected of a woman but expected at a "morally" acceptable time in life. The weight of it increases manifold when the married woman is a public personality at the mercy of a million points of view. And can you begin to imagine the furore in case a woman chooses motherhood without marriage?
Parenthood, for many, is a celebratory checkpoint in life. That a celebrity is choosing to share this milestone with the world must be appreciated, and respected within boundaries. It is neither a license nor an invitation for the public to impinge upon a woman's choices, whether they are in defiance of the social norm or not.
Views expressed are the author's own.
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