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'I am a woman and have cleavage' says Deepika Padukone protesting against blatant sexism by English daily

Written By Vishal Manve | Updated: Sep 14, 2014, 04:14 PM IST

Picture credit: BollywoodLife.com

These tweets were against a publication for highlighting an apparent 'Cleavage story' which was distasteful.

The inherent sexist approach to news is apparent as many publications use 'tiltating and extremely distasteful' pictures in entertainment section to get hits and increase sales. Though many celebs have ignored this somewhat unwanted fad, Bollywood's numero uno actress Deepika Padukone decided to take the matter into her own hands. When a leading national daily put out a story stating, 'Omg, Deepika Padukone's cleavage' and tweeted it, Deepika got furious and tweeted about the same. 

The news publication later deleted the tweet and took down the story as well, after criticism mounted on Twitter and various social media platforms against the offensive story. The publication is known to use such videos and pictures for stories. The video was from 2013 when Deepika Padukone's Chennai Express was due to release. To dig out something this old for garnering attention is not very ethical. 

Deepika, who is known to be extremely vocal about issues close to her heart had recently even come forward and supported a Telugu actress who was caught in a scandal. Though various news organisations including the leading news daily had covered that story in pictures and named the actress involved, nobody had questioned others involved until there was a huge hue-and-cry over it. Deepika had said, "I am nobody to comment on what she has to do with her life. But it is very unfortunate that something like this happened. If that is the only thing she could do to support herself and her family and that's the only way she could make money, I don't think there is anything wrong with that. Like a lot of people have been saying that its extremely unfair just because we know she is, why are we not supporting her? Why are we making it a scandal or an issue? Instead, now that we know that she has such problems, why cant we all step out there and help her? Why do we not talk about the people who had hired her to do what she is doing? I don't think it should be looked down upon. Rather we should all get together and support her". 

Must read:  'How to report crimes against women: a gender sensitivity style-book for the Indian media'. 

Besides, Deepika has time and again highlighted the importance of individual choices and freedom with her characters in films and personal life as well. Be it Lafangey Parindey, Yeh Jawaani hain Deewani or the recently released Finding Fanny — Padukone's potrayal of characters has been strong and vociferous. Hence, to demean it with something so trivial is definitely a below the belt act that needs to repudiated. Time and again, stories about how women are being potrayed in movies or how a certain 'revolution' with women-centric films is on the fringes is being discussed but, isn't it time the media questions itself — How do we report stories or potray women? 

Bollywood has been ushering in a new wave of female-centric films from English Vinglish starring Sridevi to Dirty Picture and Kahaani by Vidya Balan. This year, Kangana Ranaut's Queen broke all records and touched a chord with the audience. Hence, such news reports that glorify and highlight a certain aspect of woman's body and call it news, need to reassess their coverage in the long run. 

More power to Deepika Padukone! 

Below are some of Deepika's tweets: 

Meanwhile, industry colleagues, celebrities and others supported Deepika on Twitter.