Sonali Gulati – has come up with an awesome video a REWRITE of deepika padukone‘s MY CHOICE .
She breaks down each myth of women empowerment of My Choice as propagated by the Video, which actually is disempowerment ,
Re-writing the script is important and must be done.
The Vogue Empower video is not empowering to women.
THE REWRITE
My body, my mind, my choice
No
I am not a woman’s empowerment video
Scripted by a man
played by a woman
That starts with “My Body”
you objectifying prick
MY Choice
MY Words
written by ME
MY Voice
not your man-you-script
THIS
Because this is MY choice
MY choice
To not be a slow-motion, hair flying, spirit-roaming, vogue-worthy smiling face
Because THIS is not about my body or my mind or my spirit
It’s about my LIFE
and therefore my choice
To wear the clothes I like; even if my spirit roams naked
MY choice
To NOT wear clothes AT ALL
MY choice
To BE naked
Because neither my spirit nor my body need your permission to roam naked
Because I am ALIVE and kicking with bodily functions
My choice;
to be a size 0 or a size 15
My choice
to not be a size AT ALL because sizes were created to encage us
Because that size 0 that you mention is known as anorexia
And no one ought to willfully want to be that unattainable and unhealthy size 0
Because that size 15 that you mention
can mean being fat, sexy, and fierce as fuck
Because that size 15, yes you can script it
But the women remain invisible in your magazine
Yes you stay stuck in your fat phobia
because only a side-profiled pregnant woman
is considered “beautiful” enough to make the cut
in your so-called feminist video
They don’t have a size for my spirit, and never will
Because I am so done with your spirit and soul bullshit
Because I am so done with your fear of my body, my consent
Because I am so done with you trying to find a size for this and a size for that
To use cotton and silk to trap my soul is to believe that you can halt the expansion of the universe
Because I refused to be exoticised by your cottons and silks
Because I don’t want to be talked about in terms of saris at all
Because I can be a woman who defies your “feminine”
Because I can be a woman who doesn’t shave or wax
Because I can be a woman who was born with a cock or one who straps it on
Or capture sunlight in the palm of your hand
Your mind is caged, let it free
My body is not
Let it be
Because I’m not YOUR sunshine
I am MY OWN fire
And enough about my body, my body, MY body
My choice
To marry, or not to marry
It’s not about a yes or no to marry
It’s about the system itself
And I say UP YOURS to your patriarchal institution of marriage
To have sex before marriage,
to have sex outside of marriage,
or to not have sex
My choice
My choice
To speak up
Because YOUR words continue to sexualize and asexualize me
Because my having sex can only be talked about
within and beyond the confines of marriage and monogamy
Because the possibility of me having sex with myself doesn’t even cross your mind
Because what my hand can do is too satisfying for me
too threatening for your male ego and
too scandalous to mention in a Vogue video
To love temporarily, or to lust forever
My choice
My choice
To be a woman
And not be talked about in terms of love and lust
Is that too much to ask?
To love a man, or a woman, or both
Because I almost didn’t scratch his
Because I refuse to talk about love within the confines of your gender binaries
Because being a “lesbian” or a “bisexual”
are words that are still too taboo to say
Too outlawed to exist
Too outlandish to hear
Too forbidden to witness
Too censored to see
So lesbians and bisexuals can only be described and couched in words like “To love a man, a woman, or both”
Because the word “neither” or “both” or “in-between” in your gender categories doesn’t exist
Because same-sex desire is too much to show in a video
Because being gender-queer, gender-bending, gender non-conforming
all exist beyond the stereotypes YOU choose to embrace
Because hijras only exist in your worldview as fleeting,
forcefully presented at your births and weddings
only to be shooed away
And because you don’t even care to know about butches and kothis
Perhaps it’s time you re-think gender
and rethink sexuality
The bindi on my forehead, the ring on my finger,
adding your surname to mine,
they’re all ornaments.
They can be replaced
I choose
NO surnames at all
Not yours, not mine
Because I know all too well how and why they are passed down
Because I choose not to be defined as someone’s daughter
someone’s wife, someone’s mother, or someone’s sister
My love for you cannot, so treasure that
I am not so pompous and egotistical
to assume that my love for someone cannot be replaced
Enough of this treasure bullshit that perpetuates
women as possessive
women as possessions
My choice; to come home when I want
Don’t be upset if I come home at 4am
Don’t be fooled if I come home at 6pm
My choice to NOT come home at all
My choice; to have your baby or not
My choice
to have OUR baby or not
My Choice
to have an abortion or not
Because the word ‘abortion’ is too scathing to appear in your video
To pick you from 7 billion choices or not
So don’t get cocky
My choice
To have the ability and desire to pick more than one mate please
Because polyamory exists too
My choice
to mention ALL 7.3 billion people
so get your figures right
My pleasure might be your pain
My songs, your noise
My choice
To not be a song, to not be a melody
My choice
to have MY voice
Let’s talk about class and caste disparities
Let’s talk about the violence and rape
Let’s talk about your heteronormative, patriarchal , misogynistic,
gendered notions of what a woman even is
Let’s talk about our history
Let’s talk about how women for centuries have done MORE work and earned LESS
Let’s talk about how it’s high time we dismantle this power
No let’s not talk about that!
because that’s just not so HOT
nor COOL
to talk about in a Vogue video
because YOUR Vogue video about US
is all too clean and clear-cut and black & white
My order, your anarchy
Your sins, my virtues
Why must I always be talked about in terms of sins and virtues?
Because the English language prevents you from
Talking about ME as being a truly EMPOWERED woman
Who can write her own script, create her own video
Be a faceless celebrity
And still reach a million people
My choices are like my fingerprints
They make me unique
I am UNIQUE. Full Stop.
You want to talk about fingerprints?
My fingerprints are what I use to sign
Why?
Because YOU deny me my right to an education
My fingerprints are what I shall leave behind
To show the world that I am capable
of doing more than just cooking and cleaning and caring
My fingerprints are what I shall leave behind
When I escape from being confined
I am the tree of the forest
I am the snowflake not the snowfall
I am a woman
who refuses to be equated with nature and nurture
I RISE
I BURN
I AM FIERCE
I AM LARGE
I am not some cool tiny particle falling from the sky
created by your narrow-minded vision
You are the snowflake
Wake up
Get out of the shit storm
You are the FAKE, who wants to MAKE
A video about women
by exoticising and fetishising
and copywriting from within your shit storm
And no please don’t bother waking up
Keep sleeping and keep dreaming
of your Vogue-worthy women
with their hair flying in slow motion
just like all the other advertising bullshit that you do
I choose to empathize
Or to be indifferent
My Choice?
I choose NOT to have any empathy for you or your crap
I choose NOT to be indifferent
But instead
I fight for my human right
I command to be free
I stipulate to be safe
I require to live
I claim ME
To be just ME
I choose to be different
I am the universe
Infinite in every direction
This is my choice
I choose to break away from your man-you-script
I choose not make any lofty claims of being the universe
Despite the fact that you exist in this universe
because I gave birth to you
Fuck choice!
I can be complex and badass and boring
I can rage and rant and but I’m enduring
Because I’m not ready to give up
Or settle for less
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