When will people like Hardik Pandya stop objectifying women

It has been a historical struggle for women to get respected by men in society and not be treated as objects with an expiry date. Despite all the progress our society has made some people keeps on proving that they are still animals. Especially men who have celebrity status, considered as intellectual and highly educated, seems to think that they have a free pass and continue to be disrespectful to women.

There have been numerous incidents recently where men have violated and objectified women. Some might say, “leave it, Sab chalta hai” or “Boys will be boys”. But we should remember that such an attitude only cultivates a poisonous environment for women. A place where the violation of women will no more be considered an important issue.

Sexist comments against women by Yann Moix

The first thing that comes to your mind when you hear of a French writer – a gentleman. However, this image was recently shattered by French writer Yann Moix. 

In an interview with Marie Claire, in regard with the women he would date, he said, 

“the body of a 50-year-old woman is not extraordinary at all” therefore declaring himself to be incapable of dating women his age. He also said that he prefers young women and that “the body of a 25-year-old is extraordinary”.

I haven’t acquainted myself with his work. Definitely, it may not be as famous as his comments are right now. One wouldn’t expect that a renowned person would utter such words. Although who are we kidding with, his line of work has nothing to do how he is supposed to talk about women. 

The idea of older men dating younger women is not alien to anyone. It has been happening for longer than we would like to agree. It might continue in the future as well. And I personally don’t mind if a person is dating someone younger. But I do not agree the way Yann Moix objectified the women.

The mentality behind the same is simple, older men want to feel young and alive till they can. You can say, it also has something to do with their male ego. Where they want to prove that they are dating young attractive women because they simply can.

Some would argue that everyone is entitled to their own sexual tastes and preferences. But really does that imply that any man can insult an entire generation of middle-aged women as being ‘un-dateable’.

In a following interview with The Times, Moix made further racist remarks on women. He branded ‘white women’ as ‘pretentious’ and ‘focused on themselves’. Moix continued by saying that he rather prefers ‘Asian women’ as they offer a link to ‘another cosmos’. Moreover, he also refused to be apologetic towards his previous comments.

A University Professor talked about women’s virginity

Another recent incident was of a professor from the Jadavpur University. He wrote a Facebook post where he compared a woman’s virginity to a ‘sealed bottle’. It’s another example of a person from as prestigious background as education and degrade women. Although he took down the post, he was unapologetic about it. He defended himself by calling it freedom of his speech and expression.

It’s beyond me to understand how men like him consider their worshipful attention as a gift. In reality however, its nothing but burden to most women. While there are women who deal with this kind of unwanted attention. Men like him don’t believe it’s a thing and that such attention is really undesired by most women.

But then again it’s not just him alone that saying such things about women on such a platform.

Hardik Pandya proudly talked inappropriately on TV 

Most recently Indian Cricketer Hardik Pandya was also under fire. He made certain comments on The TV chat show ‘Koffee with Karan’ were perceived as ‘inappropriate’ and ‘disrespectful’ towards women.

Hardik Pandya said that he is a man who ‘is a little from the black side’. He also made comments about objectifying women on the basis of ‘how they move’ which helps him picturize. He proudly talked about confessing with father about his ‘Aaj mein kar ke aaya’ moment.

He not only shattered reputation of his own, he did same with the reputation of his family and whole team. Eventually, the BCCI suspended him along with KL Rahul, another participant on show from further games after the controversy. 

What is wrong is that we, women let men like him affect our confidence;  really start to question selves because of men like him. There is always going to be someone who is ageist, misogynistic and makes such childish and superficial comments.

We cannot completely banish such people from society. However we can focus on denying them the attention that they so desperately seek. It’s a shame that there are men who have such a thinking . However, lack of attention from such men should not bother women. They don’t deserve attention from beautiful mature women from such artificial categories created by them.

Priya Malik slammed Hardik Pandya with her poetry

Former Big Boss contestant Priya Malik has shattered Hardik Pandya by her powerful poem ‘Dear Mr. Player’.

Priya shared the video with a note,

“Very proud to share this piece with all of you because it says the things that need to be spoken to Mr. Player.”

She recites, “Dear Mr. Player. Aaj main kar ke aayi. No, not sex but a lesson on respect, gender sensitivity and sexism.”

Watch Priya Malik reciting the poem – Dear Mr. Player

The fact that men like Moix or Hardik Pandya exist with their arrogant and critical judgment of women’s bodies. It is not something surprising. However, people should not be okay with such statements or worse, justify them.