Even when the sun decides to not show up one day, people start craving Oreo Maggi and the world turns ‘Upside Down’ like in Stranger Things, one thing will remain constant: women will continued to be asked important questions. Like, what are your plans on ‘settling’?, Khushkhabri kab doge?
IDK how, but people never get bored of this nonsense. Uncle ji, apna morning walk karo na, why are you “worried” about us? Women are reduced to questions of marriage, kids and ‘settling down’, as career toh shaunk-shaunk mein bana liya tha.
Here are 10 times women were asked absolutely ridiculous questions after they got married.
1. When Sania Mirza was asked about her plans on ‘settling down’.
During a national interview, news TV anchor Rajdeep Sardesai asked the tennis player her plans on settling down, whatever that means. While the interview was being held following the release of her memoir, Rajdeep asked, “Amidst all the celebrityhood, when is Sania going to settle down? Is it going to be in Dubai? Is it going to be in any other country? What about motherhood, building a family, I don’t see all that in the book, it seems like you don’t want to retire just yet to settle down?“
Sania savagely replied:
Unfortunately that’s when we’re settled, and no matter how many Wimbledons we win or number ones in the world we become, we don’t become settled. But eventually it will happen, not right now. And when it does happen I’ll be the first one to tell everybody when I plan to do that.
-Sania Mirza
2. When Deepika Padukone was asked if marriage will affect the kind of films she will pick.
Shortly after her wedding in 2018, Deepika was asked the question in a supposedly candid interview with Filmfare. The anchor asked her, “Will your marriage affect the kind of films that’ll you’ll say yes to now?”
Deepika gave a befitting reply to the question and said:
No, why should it? The journey of life will. The kind of films that I do today and the films I did five years ago are different because I was in a creatively different space then. But marriage is not going to change anything.
-Deepika Padukone
3. When, during a promotional event, it was insinuated that the money Deepika invested in her production was ‘ghar ka paisa‘ and not her own earnings.
During a promotional event for her film Chhapaak, which Deepika produced as well, a journalist assumed that because she is a wife now, the money she uses would be her husband’s even when she is one of Bollywood’s top actors.
The journalist said, “ghar ka paisa laga hua hai”, and Deepika shot back at him, saying:
Excuse me! Yeh kisne bola?! Yeh mere khud ke paise hain, excuse me! Meri mehnat hai!
-Deepika Padukone
4. When Anushka Sharma was asked when will she start looking like a married woman.
In an interview, the actor was asked when will people get to see the “married” Anushka, because of course, marriage is like plastic surgery…. not. The question went like, “Now that you’re married, people want to see that married Anushka. What is she like at home?“
Anushka was clearly disappointed with the question (of course), and said:
The same! What more do i need to do to appear married? Cook and do the dishes?
-Anushka Sharma
5. When Priyanka Chopra was asked that will she continue acting now she was married, and was asked about the controversies of her dropping her surname ‘Jonas’.
A leading tabloid did a piece on Priyanka Chopra that said, “Will Priyanka Chopra continue acting after her marriage to Nick Jonas?”
Even when Priyanka dropped her surname from her Instagram handle, she was bombarded with controversies. She cleared the controversy:
It’s just a professional hazard… Because of the noise of social media, because of the prevalence that it has in our lives, I think it seems a lot larger than it is. I think that we give it a lot more credence in real life, and I don’t think it needs that.
-Priyanka Chopra
6. When Keira Knightley was asked how she balanced her personal and professional life after marriage.
At the Hollywood Film Awards, the actor was asked a sexist question that pointed to the equation that says: career and marriage for women don’t exist.
She was asked, “How do you balance home life with your personal life?” To this, Keira replied:
Are you going to ask all the men that tonight?
-Keira Knightley
7. When Margot Robbie was asked about when she plans to have babies then that she was married.
When Margot Robbie was asked about her plans of having children, just because she was married. She said that it became her pet peeve.
It made me really angry. How dare some old guy dictate what I can and can’t do when it comes to motherhood or my own body? I got married, and the first question in almost every interview is ‘Babies?’ When are you having one? I’m so angry that there’s this social contract. You’re married, now have a baby. Don’t presume. I’ll do what I’m going to do.
-Margot Robbie
8. When Reese Witherspoon’s financial advisor warned her that she’d start making less money when she’ll be a 40-something married woman.
In an interview, Reese revealed that her financial advisor said, “You need to start saving right now because you’re going to be making drastically less money in your 40s. Basically, you’re not going to have much of a career.“
I’ll never forget the sexist remarks I had had to deal with in the industry.
-Reese Witherspoon
9. When Maggie Gyllenhaal was said that she was too old to play a 55-year-old man’s love interest. At 37.
The actor was told this when she was just 37. To play the love interest of A 55-YEAR-OLD. Well, such remarks were made because she is married and when women marry, they subsequently get old.
It was astonishing to me. It made me feel bad, and then it made me feel angry, and then it made me laugh.
-Maggie Gyllenhaal
10. When Jennifer Garner was asked about her balancing career and family, while her husband was not.
During a red carpet event, Jennifer Garner and her then husband Ben Affleck were asked questions. While Ben was asked about his work, among other things, Jennifer was only asked about her work-personal life balance.
Every single person who interviewed me, I mean every single one — and this is true of the red carpet here tonight, Elle — asked me, ‘How do you balance work and family?
-Jennifer Garner
Can we put a stop to this blatantly sexist approach towards married women?