Bollywood actress Anushka Sharma has penned a hard-hitting note on Instagram, calling out the idea that having a boy is a privilege and having a girl isn’t.
Calling this belief 'myopic', the actress writes, "In our society having a male child is seen as a 'privilege'. Of course, it’s no more privilege than having a girl child but the fact is that this so-called privilege has been viewed incorrectly and with an extremely myopic view."
Asking people to rather see it as an opportunity to raise a boy so well that women feel safe, she adds, "The only ‘privilege’ is that one has the opportunity to raise a boy in a way that he respects a girl. That’s your DUTY as a parent to society. So, don’t think of it as a PRIVILEGE. The gender of the child doesn’t make you privileged but it is actually the responsibility you owe to society to raise a boy so well that women feel safe and protected.”
The actress also shared Ayushmann Khurrana's story that highlights how the blame and thus the responsibility always shift on women when it comes to harassment or violence.
"We talk about how many women were raped last year, not about how many men raped women. We talk about how many girls in a school district were harassed last year, not about how many boys harassed girls... So you can see how the use of this passive voice has a political effect. It shifts the focus off men and boys and onto girls and women. Even the term violence against women is problematic. It's a passive construction," reads a part of the post.
