Vogue - My Choice by Deepika Padukone

Firstly, stop making this a case of 'with it' or 'against it', because if you're either, you're rather obtuse.

Now. The message itself, at its crux, is a healthy message. 'Women have rights too.' Yay. We get it. The sensationalism is understandable too, considering how viral media marketing works.

Let us, however, break it down.

First, the source. Vogue is a magazine that actively fetishises, condones, and promotes unrealistic standards for women (AND MEN.) to follow. You open an average monthly issue, and the index reads this: "Lose weight, look pretty, look acceptable." To erase the source from the context would be fallacious, because you need to remember that it's a marketing scheme. Feminism and empowerment are the current 'it' words that agencies ate hitching their token socially relevant messages to.

A lot of people have a problem with Deepika being a part of it (like the Quartz article I shared). I don't. She's using her power as an influential celeb. That's not a concern. The concern is the message itself. It appeals to the masses that consume it, namely educated, English speaking, fairly (relatively) affluent people. Why? Because it's a comfortable message.

It basically says 'have sex with whom you want, wear what you want, and be who you want to be, and you've achieved the goals of feminism.' The issue is that THAT'S not the goal of feminism. Yay, you wore a skirt without being leched at. You won a battle. And in winning that, and celebrating your victory, you forgot that there's a war ahead. A long, arduous one.

Feminism isn't about just being 'equal to men'. It's about making sure those who are downtrodden are raised. This includes SO MANY people like those discriminated against due to race, sexual orientation, disabilities