There Are Bigger Threats To Women's Modesty Than Ranveer Singh Posing Naked

Actor Ranveer Singh is facing a First Information Report on basis of a complaint filed by an NGO in Mumbai for his recent nude photoshoot. Curiously, the FIR doesn't accuse Singh of hurting male sentiments by upholding stereotypical standards of masculinity and male beauty. Instead, it accused him of outraging women's modesty and hurting their sentiments. How though?

The FIR was registered against Singh based on a complaint filed by an office bearer of a Non-Governmental Organisation on Monday. The photoshoot was for an interview Singh did for the Paper Magazine, in which he spoke about being naked in front of a thousand people. "It’s so easy for me to be physically naked, but in some of my performances, I’ve been damn f*****g naked. You can see my f*****g soul. How naked is that? That’s being actually naked. I can be naked in front of a thousand people, I don’t give a sh*t. It’s just that they get uncomfortable," he said.

Ranveer Singh posing naked: There are bigger threats to women's modesty

If you've known and read about Ranveer Singh, this photoshoot will provoke nothing more than a twitch in one of your eyebrows while you continue to scroll down. Whatever he wears or doesn't, it seems to be Singh's intent to stir the hornet's nest and generate a response from social media users and his viewers and fans. Besides, it is nowhere close to offending or disturbing us than the unsolicited nudes that land up in our DMs on social media. Any woman who clicks on a news story or social media post fully advertising the fact that it features these images of Ranveer Singh knows what she is signing up for. And yet, no one wants to talk about the unsolicited nudes predatory men send to women, which is a direct violation of our consent.

Suggested Reading: Kudos To Ranveer Singh For Baring It All. But Is Our Appreciation Gendered?

So the bottom line is - most women do not care about Ranveer Singh posing nude for a photo shoot, it is his body, and he can do whatever he wants to with it. But can women say the same about ourselves and the way society sees our bodies as nothing but objects that need to be kept under lock and key? What upsets women more is how, no matter what we wear, we end up getting sexually harassed. Where is the conversation on the outrage to our modesty brought on by the lecherous male gaze on the street, or on the internet? Why is it being drowned out by the din over a grown man's decision to pose nude?

Like our bodies, it seems that society is now trying to take over the narrative on women's sentiments, dictating, or rather, taking a wild guess on what hurts them and what doesn't. This is a neat trick to steer the conversation away from our agency over our lives, including what we choose to wear, towards what is culturally appropriate for both men and women in the polarising times that we live in.

Those who truly have taken offence with Singh's photos, please don't use women as a shoulder to perch your gun and take a shot at him. They are already near breaking point from carrying the burden of dress policing and conditioning to internalise male entitlement, which tells us to endure sexual harassment because men will be men. Or because, a woman's body is meant to be lusted after, no matter how or how much she covers it.

What we truly want is freedom from this burden. We want more accountability for men and less dress policing at homes, colleges, workplaces etc. So if someone truly cares about our sentiments, please sit down and let us talk about how these goals can be achieved instead of going after a Bollywood superstar who lives carefree.

The views expressed are the author's own.