This year, like all years, has been quite the ride. I want to say that nothing good happened and life is just terrible, but that would be very bleak. I also don’t want to be a pessimist, because I’ve been told that people don’t like it. Instead, I’ll say that a lot of good things might have happened, but a number of not-so-good things exist that we MUST talk about.
So here’s everything that offended Indians this year… like all years.
1. Deepika Padukone wearing an orange (saffron) bikini in a movie offended people for reasons that don’t exist. She was boycotted for looking gorgeous.
2. The queer community wanting marriage equality wasn’t appreciated by all, because culture precedes love, it even precedes humanity on most days.
3. Men were scandalized when the conversation around marital rape started… AGAIN. It concerned them that they no longer had control over women.
4. There was resentment from people for the Barbie movie, because women who say things as it is, aren’t very appealing. People also resented the idea of women wearing pink.
5. Women having fun in general, was frowned upon. Like women who went for the Taylor Swift Eras Tour movie.
6. While women liked some films, which wasn’t appreciated, women not liking a film was also slammed. For instance, Animal and its creators were particularly offended by women saying that the film was derogatory.
7. Not following vegetarianism was another discussion. The country was esepcially concerned with segregating meat eaters with casteist signs like “vegetarians only” at IIT Bombay’s mess.
8. Wrestlers raising their voice against Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh left people with a lot of opinions. Apparently, now the nation is not concerned for ‘India’s daughters’.
9. With protests in Nuh, Gurugram, the city was bothered that their househelps couldn’t just come to work.
10. Menstrual leaves were also a cause for concern and debate, after Smriti Irani said that “menstruation is not handicap” and hence there should be no period policy.
11. The fact that Deepika Padukone dated more than one person before choosing to get married was another debate-worthy issue. This went on for days.
12. Not the Manipur incidents and crimes against women, but the fact that the media of these incidents surfaced on the internet was questioned. People didn’t like the idea of the country “looking bad”.
13. Muhammad Rizwan doing his work and playing cricket pushed too many buttons. The nation and most cricket lovers were specifically insensitive about it.
14. Urofi Javed wearing what she likes bothered too many. This isn’t even about just this year.
15. Entrepreneurs weren’t happy when people said that working 70-hours in a week isn’t justified. This was after Narayana Murthy said that youth needs to work harder.
16. Since dating women was clearly frowned upon, Rhea Chakraborty was also shamed for it. In a misogynistic turn of events, the nation was concerned for the man she’s now dating.
17. It also bugged men that Indian women don’t “look” fit, and they don’t gym as much as the gym bros.
18. Harsh Varrdhan Kapoor was rattled by people who don’t wear original shoes, or know how to style them. It was an entire thing.
19. DMK MP from Thoothukudi, Kanimozhi also offended the parliament when she began to speak on the women’s reservation bill – to the point that she was heckled by other MPs.
20. A doctor was pissed at women who have multiple sexual partners, and called it “pseudo feminist” mindset.
21. Sara Ali Khan constantly trying to sound relatable left people tired. For instance, when she said that she owns no designer clothes or bags in her wardrobe, while posing for Vogue.
22. When a woman listed her potential matches, the men in the country decided to take offense, “because how dare she do something that has been happening with women since forever?”
23. Kusha Kapila’s divorce was the topic of discussion for days. Some even stopped to trolling and blaming the actor/content creator for her separation.
We peaked insensitivity, and learned new ways to make the world a worse place.