We need to stop insulting women for being 'too sexy'

Veteran Bollywood actor Sharmila Tagore opened up about how she has been constantly reminded for doing a bikini shoot for the Filmfare magazine in 1966. She spoke about how people reacted by saying that she was trying to 'grab eyeballs' for doing the shoot. She also revealed that her photographer seemed to be more concerned with her showing off her skin and urged her to cover her body. This was at a time when the society was considered to be too 'conservative', so being bold on camera was a real taboo. Sharmila Tagore's bikini shoot became the talk of the town as she was one of the first actors to do so. But as a society, are we any different from this? Do we still harbour such reservations, or have we done away with them? Why do we still obsess over female actors for being 'too sexy' on the big screen? 

Like Sharmila Tagore, many other female actors started sporting the bikini in their movies. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, actors like Dimple Kapadia, Zeenat Aman and Parveen Babi donned the bikini in their films. Although female actors started becoming more bold in their dressing sense, this somehow didn't sink in with the general public. We know that society has always been hypocritical in singling out women for being 'unconventional in their choices', so such things aren't surprising. It's funny that over the years, we continue to turn a blind eye to forced arranged marriages, but continue to have a problem with a woman's dressing sense. 

But the society doesn't seem to have a problem with a man sorting a pair of shorts, or going shirtless. None of us made an effort to call Anil Kapoor, Akshay Kumar or Sunny Deol 'provocative', did we? The provocative rants are always reserved for those who have breasts instead of a flat chest. Why didn't we ever find it important to call out men for their dress sense? Why is that their clothes don't define their character? Clothes seem to have a lot to do with a woman's character and conduct. 

The Conservative Mindset Still Thrives

The 1990s was an era when more Indian families owned televisions. Bikinis and skimpy outfits slowly started becoming a part of mainstream Bollywood, but people have not yet accepted this fully. We are now in the digital era, with most of us having private screens, and seeing such things is quite commonplace, but we still feel that it is our duty to school a woman about what she should wear and what she shouldn't. If people had no qualms, would Tapsee Pannu been trolled for flaunting a bikini? Would Priyanka Chopra been trolled wore wearing a short dress while meeting PM Modi? I am sure that Anushka Sharma would not have been slammed for wearing a bikini on a beach. She was criticised for sporting the outfit because she is Virat Kohli's wife. What has her husband got to do with her dress sense? Isn't she free to wear whatever she wants? Today's social media has become a place where we have started making senseless arguments over a woman's dress sense. If that was not the case, actor Sana Khan would not have been told to change her 'religion' because it's improper for a Muslim woman to wear a bikini. 

Although we have progressed in various spheres, we are still far behind in the way we think and conduct ourselves. A bikini or a burqa doesn't make a woman greater or lesser than what she is meant to be. 

Views expressed are author's own