A new campaign featuring Bollywood actress Deepika Padukone promoting empowerment, feminism, and women making their own choices is receiving criticism after going viral.
In partnership with Vogue India's #VogueEmpower Campaign, the video features 99 women from all walks of life stating what they feel are their rights as women. From marriage to having sex to body image, the video touches on topics that have primarily been influenced by the men in their lives.
"In my family, my father is the only male in the house, but all of us have a voice," Padukone told the magazine. "I've always been allowed to be who I want to be. When you're not caged, when you don't succumb to expectation, that's when you're empowered."
The two-minute black and white film features several shots of different women, including Padukone, and is also narrated by her.
Padukone, who last fall slammed the Times of India for a sexist tweet regarding her cleavage, has increasingly become a new voice for women's rights in a country dealing with violence against women, as well as other issues, including pay gaps, harassment and the male gaze, Hindustan Times notes.
Besides being derided for its script (there's even a spoof version about beer bellies) and production, some are concerned about Padukone's take on adultery, body image and her former endorsements.
In the video she says, "My choice to marry or not to marry. To have sex before marriage, to have sex outside of marriage, to not have sex. My choice..."
As Jyoti Sharma Bawa writes in the Hindustan Times, the campaign suggests cheating is acceptable. Another problem is that while the video talks about embracing a size zero to 15, many of the women in the video are of a certain size and look.
But while the film may be a little awkward, it is does hit solid points on making choices of who to marry, when to have (or not have) children and personal freedom in general. The campaign says making your own choices make you unique — which has really stuck with some Twitter users:
Watch the video above and let us know, do you find it empowering?
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