Heights Of Insecurity: Athlete Shames Women Influencers Over Dance Reels

In patriarchal societies, men can’t stand it when women triumph over them in any field. Some men even go to the extent of pulling down successful women by shaming them, because blaming and shaming women are unfortunately normalised. In January this year, an Indian jump rope athlete posted a reel compiling videos of various female Instagram influencers dancing to songs along with montages of his achievements. Comparing the popularity of these women to his own, he questioned if they truly deserved it.

He is trying to convey that women who post videos of themselves dancing are gaining so much popularity while he is not recognised for "representing our country, making world records, showing real talent on reality shows, and making our country proud." He intends to say that women who post dancing videos do not deserve popularity as compared to men like him who are winning awards.

Athlete Shames Women For Popularity

It's been about three months since the athlete posted this video, and as he intended, his follower count has drastically increased. While it might seem like he is getting the attention that he wants, he has lost his self-respect. Stooping low and shaming women out of pure jealousy and misogyny has only diminished all his accolades and achievements.

If his true concern was that athletes were not receiving the recognition they deserved, shouldn’t he have compared his sport with another sport? Would he have the audacity to compare his achievements with those of popular cricketers? Most certainly not, because he knows he would be mercilessly thrashed if he did that. It’s always easy to attack women, especially those who don’t have a huge background, right? Who is going to question if he shames a bunch of women dancing on social media?

Well, times have changed, and men who shame women will be called out! Who gave him the authority to share the videos of these women? It’s obvious that he wouldn’t have gotten their consent to make a video to shame them. Does a woman having a public account mean anyone can take her photos and videos and use them according to their needs? Isn’t it a woman’s right to post content of her choice on her social media handle?

Who is he to determine what talent is? If his talent is jump rope, then theirs is dancing. If he thinks he’s showcasing his talents, so are they! How can he claim that athletics is a "real" talent while dancing isn't? Just because these women post videos of themselves dancing on social media doesn’t give him the right to question their worth. Besides, the majority of the followers on these women’s accounts are men. So, why is this again a woman’s fault? Why not show his grudge to the millions of men who are following these women? Heights of hypocrisy!

Besides, no female athlete is whining about not being popular enough or having a high fan following on social media. They are focusing on their sport, on how to improve themselves, and on reaching greater heights.

If representing the country and receiving accolades isn’t making him proud, maybe he too should learn to dance and start posting videos on social media. Instead of cribbing about women having more followers, why isn't he satisfied with his achievements? This is just showing what an insecure and misogynistic man-child he is!

It's a woman’s right to showcase her talent on her social media handles. As long as there is nothing obscene or illegal, what she does or what she wears isn’t anyone’s business. Just because men’s fragile egos hurt when women outdo them doesn’t entitle them to go around shaming women. When are men going to realise that gaining popularity by shaming women is disgustingly cheap behaviour?

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