Kangana Ranaut has a lot of opinions and I admire her for being fearless in expressing them. However, sometimes the actress forgets where to draw the line and ends up saying things that are either offensive or hardly make any sense. Well, she has done both with her latest tweet!
Kangana recently shared her two cents on “gender” with three long tweets. They revolved around spirituality and somehow ended up declaring that “gender is of no consequence” whatsoever.
As a scholar of gender studies, I am going to put it out there—Kangana’s views on the subject are messy, misinformed, and rather alarming. Here’s why:
Gender IS Of Consequence!
“Whether you are a man/woman/ anything else your gender is of no consequence to anyone but you, please understand,” reads Kangana’s Twitter. This is far from true. If Kangana started filling her own forms for IT returns, investments, and even hospital check-ups, she’d understand. Every single one of them has a column for “gender”. Contrary to how Kangana puts it, gender is everywhere! And for a country that didn’t even recognise the ‘third gender” until the historic National Legal Services Authority v. Union of India judgement in 2013, the gender you identify has consequences!
I am yet to see a trans person playing a trans person on screen, for instance. In fact, activist Laxmi Narayan Tripathi mentions in her book Red Lipstick that most of them earn their living through begging, badhai, or sex work because no one is ready to give respectable jobs to them! Then how can we declare that “gender is of no consequence”?
This Is Your Privilege Talking!
In her tweet, Kangana also mentions how “In Modern world we don’t even use words like actresses or female directors we call them actors and directors.” This is a great development, yes. But it is being practised everywhere? It is only educated and privileged who even understands this concept…forget about practising it. Every week, I hear at least 10 people using the words “female” and “woman” interchangeably. We have a long way to go and until we reach that point, gender is going to be a topic of discussion!
Sexuality & Gender Are Two Different Concepts!
The most misinformed sentence in Kangana’s tweet reads, “What you do in the world is your identity, not what you do in bed. Whatever your sexual preferences are they must remain in your bed only. Don’t make them your identity card or medals and flaunt everywhere. Most importantly don’t roam around with a knife to cut every throat who don’t agree with your gender. I am again saying your gender is not your identity don’t make it that way.” First of all—what we do in bed, defines our sexuality, not gender. For someone talking about a world beyond gender and physicality, you can not be confusing the two.
Also, what people do in bed can’t be left to bedrooms unless everyone is treated equally in the country. As we speak of it, there’s a much-talked-about hearing going on in the Supreme Court on the topic of “Same-sex” marriage. No one is using their “sexuality” or “gender” as identity cards just for the heck of it. There’s a need to do it.
The Irony!
Only someone absolutely unaware of the kind of violence that LGBTQIA+ people face can say something like, “Most importantly don’t roam around with a knife to cut every throat who don’t agree with your gender.” So many of them are beaten, violated, thrown out of their houses and whatnot just because of their gender and what they do in bed. To say that it is the LGBTQIA+ folks who roam around with a knife to defend their “gender” is just hypocritical.
More importantly, what do you mean by “…who don’t agree with your gender”? When someone tells you about their gender or who they identify as, you accept it and move on. There is no room for disagreement or debate. There is no other way!
Here’s hoping Kangana takes back her statement. Because it is tone-deaf at best!
