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The first time her nude pictures were leaked on social media, it bothered Radhika Apte, but not anymore. Slut shaming because of leaked nudes is not morality, it's disgusting - writes the author.
The first time her nude pictures were leaked on social media, it bothered Radhika Apte, but not anymore. Slut shaming because of leaked nudes is not morality, it’s disgusting – writes the author.
“Dude did you see these leaked nude pictures of this celebrity?”
“Omg! why do people do such stuff?”
”She must have leaked it on her own, such attention seekers can do anything for publicity.”
Blah blah blah… we can go on and on blaming celebrities when it comes to controversies like leaked nude pictures; we share their pics, shame and blame them because obviously, celebrities are not allowed to have a private life, right?
Many of us would have at least once googled for nude pics or say, ‘hot pics’ of celebrities. Trust me there is no denial of this fact. But do we think that we can be the actual reason behind this trend of ‘leaked nude pics’ gone viral?
“Now, there is nothing to hide, I can do anything, and people won’t be able to make news out of it,” said Radhika Apte.
In the latest interview of Feet Up with the Stars hosted by celebrity stylist Anaita Shroff Adajania, guest Radhika Apte condemned the culture of nudes. She has been the victim of this leaked nudes trend many times. In 2015, Radhika Apte’s nude clip from Anurag Kashyap’s short film Madly was leaked online and was widely circulated over WhatsApp and social media. In 2016 too, a sex scene from Parched featuring Radhika Apte and Adil Hussain got leaked online and had raised many eyebrows.
Radhika Apte says that although at first the fact that such pictures were leaked online without context was scary, when it got circulated in a big way, it didn’t bother her much because she understood that this is how the world is and she can do nothing to stop it. All she can do is to accept it and fight back the stringent norms and those elements of society which blamed her for this.
The fact that from the whole movie only the sex scenes were leaked proves how as a country we are still not okay with the display of sex in cinema. We are still not comfortable with the concept of women having sex because apparently, it’s against our flawed ‘sabhyata’.
The saddening fact is that we spend time debating about morality and whether someone (of legal age of course) should send nudes or suggestive pictures in the first place. However, there is no debate over whether leaking private nude photos or pictures that were sent in confidence is wrong. The same (obviously) goes for compromising photos that were taken without the knowledge/consent of the people. The ones in the leaked photos are victims of a crime, there are no doubts about it.
The way the society blames women whose pictures are leaked is disturbing and harrowing. In Radhika Apte’s case, many trolled and slut-shamed her for doing a sex scene in the first place – something that she is entitled to do as an actor. The same mindset is what leads people to condemn women whose private pics are leaked – the fact that they were open about their bodies in the first place.
In the end, we need to understand that everyone has a right to a private life and we are no one to point fingers at them just for fun. Also, rather than female stars learning how to shrug off the questions when this ‘leaked nudes’ scandal happens to them, we need to learn not to shame anyone.
Watch Radhika Apte dropping more such truth bombs here!
I read, I write, I dream and search for the silver lining in my life. Being a student of mass communication with literature and political science I love writing about things that bother me. Follow read more...
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