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The women folk in her firm only wore salwar-kameez or saris. She had already been mocked at several times for being a bit rebellious. She didn’t wish to stand out for her dress.
Photo by Ben White on Unsplash
Meena looked at that dress on the hanger with disdain. She so badly wished to wear it to her office too. She and her sister had decided to get similar dresses. Her sister, who worked in a corporate firm wore it coolly, and put on even a little make-up. Not much, but mascara, lipstick and kajal. Meena stared at her blankly.
Her sister asked, “Di, why are you not wearing it? You were so excited while we purchased it yesterday!”
Meena didn’t know what to reply. Her firm was of a different kind. The women folk in her firm only wore salwar-kameez or saris. She had already been mocked at several times for being a bit rebellious. She didn’t wish to stand out for her dress. She replied, “I wanted to wear it when we are going out to dine together!”
After her sister left, she thought of her office life. When she had to go on field visits, she wore jeans with loose shirts. Later, she wore only salwar-kameez with a proper chunni. She had never put on lipstick or kajal or mascara. She wondered why?
Was she also a victim of “What will others say?” Where was her choice? Why this unsaid rule was affecting her so much? Her firm, having a ratio of 95% men to 5% female had an uncanny atmosphere. Was it affecting her?
That day, she decided to finally break the unsaid rules. She not only put on the new dress, but also the mascara, kajal and lipstick and hopped on the bus to her office.
Several people asked her, “Is it your birthday?” When she let the question go by simply smiling, someone asked, “Is it your wedding anniversary?”
Finally, angered, she blurted out, “What I wear is my choice, alright? If there’s a rule, please show me. Let it be passed by the Board of Directors. Otherwise, let me wear what I want!”
People looked at her silently and then, went away. No one ever asked her that question again.
She was finally happy to be able to wear what she wanted!
Neelam Saxena Chandra is an Engineering graduate from VNIT and has done her Post Graduation Diploma in IM&HRD and also in Finance. She has completed a summer course in Finance from London School of read more...
This post has published with none or minimal editorial intervention. Women's Web is an open platform that publishes a diversity of views, individual posts do not necessarily represent the platform's views and opinions at all times.
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UP Boards Topper Prachi Nigam was trolled on social media for her facial hair; our obsession with appearance is harsh on young minds.
Prachi Nigam’s photo has been doing the rounds on social media for the right reasons. Well, scratch that- I wish the above statement were true. This 15-year-old girl should ideally be revelling in her spectacular achievement of scoring a whopping 98.05% and topping her tenth-grade boards. But oddly enough, along with her marks, it’s something else that garners more attention – her facial hair.
While the trolls are driving themselves giddy by mocking this girl who hasn’t even completed her school yet, the ones who are taking her side are going one step ahead – they are sharing her photoshopped pictures, sans the facial hair, looking nothing less than a celebrity with captions saying – “Prachi Nigam, ten years later”.
Doctors have already diagnosed her with PCOD in their comments, based on photographic evidence. While we have names for people shamed for their weight – body shaming, for their skin colour- racism, for their age- age shaming, for being a female- sexism, this category of shaming where one faces criticism for their appearance has no name. With that, it also has zero shame attached to it.
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