Sexism Or Appreciation Of Beauty? A Lesson From Shashi Tharoor's Vocabulary

Shashi Tharoor is often seen behind podiums mesmerising the audience with his high-end English vocabulary. This time this headline-maker politician is again grabbing eyeballs but not due to his language efficiency. Tharoor recently posted a selfie with six other female parliament members and referred to the House as 'attractive' because of the presence of these beauties. The internet exploded with the comments on his sexist comment suggesting women as 'decoration items'.

'Blinded' by their beauty, wordsmith Tharoor could not see beyond their appearance. If he would have looked deeper into their political career and approaches, he would have saved himself from the disaster by simply admitting what badass politicians they were.

Shashi Tharoor Picture With Women MPs

Tharoor's seemingly harmless comment is symptomatic of a larger problem many men have. They treat women as a 'sight to sore eyes' and 'decoration pieces'. They might neglect their presence when choosing employees for promotion, but when it comes to campaigns and public appearances, they never forget to include them for the show. And Tharoor's take on the situation displays how even the high-profile people are not left untouched by this phenomenon.

Tharoor was trolled for his choice of words that reduced women to their looks and he apologised for it. Well, apology accepted but what about the mentality? It prevailed even before Shashi Tharoor's post and will prevail even after his apology, if we as a society do not open up our minds and stop this from happening again.

I have wondered if this is true but it does seem like many people in high society like to show off their women and often in a flippant way. The havenots believe in safeguarding their women and keeping them hidden from the eyes of the world to save their dignity. I am not justifying this but it's only an observation and we can debate that later.

Why are a woman's accomplishments at work are shadowed by their 'charming' appearance? And the case of these six politicians which included Nustrat Jahan and Mimi Chakraborty and others is a reminder of no matter how educated we get, we cannot stop ourselves from celebrating looks over matter. As someone said, may be these women were just fine taking a picture with Tharoor. Sure thing but did they know that Tharoor would caption the picture with this - "Who says the Lok Sabha isn’t an attractive place to work?"

Just one thing to Shashi Tharoor as I bring my opinion to an end, the parliament would have been more attractive if he would have paid more attention to the political acumen rather than admiring a woman's beauty over her work. Maybe he would have been able to give some constructive contribution in the House and saved his image as a learned diplomat.

Views expressed by the author are their own.

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