British-Indian businessman Raj Kundra got arrested by the Mumbai police on July 19 for alleged production and distribution of pornographic content. However, this has given netizens an excuse to slut-shame women from the entertainment industry. Singer Sona Mohapatra took to social media to respond to such trolling.
Reacting to Raj Kundra’s arrest, she shared a self-directed video from a hotel room with her latest track ‘Ek Din’ in the background and asserted the difference between free will aka consent, and exploitation or trafficking in a series of tweets.
Speaking about the glamorous world of Bollywood she slammed 'ignorant', 'frustrated' people who make horrible assumptions. "They assume that every woman in the industry is a debauched harlot who cannot wait to sleep around to get her share of fame. Let me assure everyone that this is the exception to the norm. While there always will be shady operators in every industry, some more high profile than others, most of us in the entertainment industry are hard-working, ethical professionals who’ve invested our lives in honing our craft. Slandering us baselessly simply won’t be tolerated. As women, we will express ourselves and push back against the conservatism of every kind. We’ll wear what we want, how we want. If you don’t like what you see, feel free to look elsewhere,” she lashed out.
Sona went on to add, “The video you refer to isn’t a BTS video but one that I created as an artistic reaction to the above feeling when the porn racket story broke in media. My song ‘Ek Din - Manhattan Memories’ had just been released worldwide the same day with its music video shot in Manhattan to celebrate my NYC Times Square billboard and I was getting ready to go on a concert stage after many months of the pandemic had lots on my plate but wanted to put out a powerful message using the short video format of reels to avoid using words”.
She further explained, “The message is for women to own their own bodies and have the freedom to choose how they dress and express themselves. A subversive way to say that our clothes don’t determine our moral character and that no one has any business slut-shaming us.”
Narrating her own experience, Sona said, “I started seeing comments on my timeline even before I put out this video with slurs indicating all women from ‘Bollywood’ have loose character etc Thankfully we have filters now on our social media to delete or hide such toxic comments. Yet while I did turn those filters on, the comments inspired me to make these series of short videos to send out a strong message of empowerment. I believe we need to have a more nuanced debate in the public domain about freewill and consent VS exploitative practices and human trafficking etc in the adult industry. We have a long way to go in creating a more evolved society in such matters and a good starting point would be to start discussing our double standards especially when it comes to women. Someone else was caught running a racket, two men and that becomes an excuse for the moral police, both men and women to clamp down on women’s choices and freedom? Not acceptable”.
Reacting to Raj Kundra’s arrest, she shared a self-directed video from a hotel room with her latest track ‘Ek Din’ in the background and asserted the difference between free will aka consent, and exploitation or trafficking in a series of tweets.
The #RajKundra blow-up cannot be an excuse to throw lewd comments into our timelines & say things like, you are f… https://t.co/6S8e9OLoUT
— Sona Mohapatra (@sonamohapatra) 1627292947000
Talking about this further, in an exclusive interaction with ETimes, Sona reiterated, “This is something I’ve experienced all my life and now seeing it amplified in the entertainment industry is especially frustrating. As women in India, we have mostly grown up in an environment where shaming and blaming the girl is the default response, even when she has been groped, manhandled, or even verbally harassed. 'You must have done something wrong,' is such a common phrase we’ve heard over and over again while growing up. The fact is: Women’s safety in India is a serious problem and it’s not a high priority for any government”.
Speaking about the glamorous world of Bollywood she slammed 'ignorant', 'frustrated' people who make horrible assumptions. "They assume that every woman in the industry is a debauched harlot who cannot wait to sleep around to get her share of fame. Let me assure everyone that this is the exception to the norm. While there always will be shady operators in every industry, some more high profile than others, most of us in the entertainment industry are hard-working, ethical professionals who’ve invested our lives in honing our craft. Slandering us baselessly simply won’t be tolerated. As women, we will express ourselves and push back against the conservatism of every kind. We’ll wear what we want, how we want. If you don’t like what you see, feel free to look elsewhere,” she lashed out.
Sona went on to add, “The video you refer to isn’t a BTS video but one that I created as an artistic reaction to the above feeling when the porn racket story broke in media. My song ‘Ek Din - Manhattan Memories’ had just been released worldwide the same day with its music video shot in Manhattan to celebrate my NYC Times Square billboard and I was getting ready to go on a concert stage after many months of the pandemic had lots on my plate but wanted to put out a powerful message using the short video format of reels to avoid using words”.
She further explained, “The message is for women to own their own bodies and have the freedom to choose how they dress and express themselves. A subversive way to say that our clothes don’t determine our moral character and that no one has any business slut-shaming us.”
Narrating her own experience, Sona said, “I started seeing comments on my timeline even before I put out this video with slurs indicating all women from ‘Bollywood’ have loose character etc Thankfully we have filters now on our social media to delete or hide such toxic comments. Yet while I did turn those filters on, the comments inspired me to make these series of short videos to send out a strong message of empowerment. I believe we need to have a more nuanced debate in the public domain about freewill and consent VS exploitative practices and human trafficking etc in the adult industry. We have a long way to go in creating a more evolved society in such matters and a good starting point would be to start discussing our double standards especially when it comes to women. Someone else was caught running a racket, two men and that becomes an excuse for the moral police, both men and women to clamp down on women’s choices and freedom? Not acceptable”.
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