On Friday night, Priyanka Chopra and Nick Jonas sent the netizens into a frenzy by announcing that they have become parents. “We are overjoyed to confirm that we have welcomed a baby via surrogate. We respectfully ask for privacy during this special time as we focus on our family. Thank you so much,” the couple wrote on social media. Soon enough, congratulations started pouring in as the world extended a warm welcome to baby Chopra-Jonas. However, a certain faction on the internet managed to find fault with this happy update and started treating it as another reason to troll Priyanka.
It has been over a day and a half since Priyanka and Nick announced the birth of their baby and the netizens still haven’t found a way to calm down. What started as a happy announcement has now been converted into a heated debate on surrogacy. We are furious, to say the least, and you’d be too once you read some of the tweets that are currently being made in an attempt to diss Priyanka. And while we do not condone giving these trolls any attention, we do feel that they could do with a little education. Here’s everything that we want to say to these trolls:
What About Men Who Don’t Give Birth To Their Babies?
Some people think that the call to opt for surrogacy is going to bite Priyanka in the back a few years down the road when she would not be able to proudly talk about how she carried the kid in her womb for nine months. Here is a question for everyone who is endorsing this line of thought— men don’t give birth to their babies and are still called fathers, right? You know what we mean!
Which Culture Are You Talking About?
Not surprising that the cultural discourse has also been invoked here too and like always, Priyanka has been accused of meddling with our cultural values and the entire idea of being a Hindustani naari. Sadly, this entire narrative of Priyanka demeaning the Indian culture and its dictates remains null and void given that it is as ill-informed as it gets. The trolls would be flabbergasted to find out that surrogacy is a concept that has been mentioned and accepted in Indian mythological texts, multiple times. Devaki and Vasudev’s son and Krishna’s elder brother, Balram was, in fact, a surrogate child. Oh, and so were the 101 children MOTHERED by Gandhari!
Get Your Facts Right!
Some trolls are trying to stretch it too far by suggesting that Priyanka opted for surrogacy ‘coz she wanted a light-skinned baby and hates her own skin. Well, if only they could make better use of the internet (instead of devoting all of it to random trolling) and googled a little before making these uneducated tweets! The trolls would be surprised to know that the #NickYanka’s baby is going to have both their genes and the outcome would have been the exact same had the actress conceived the baby herself.
Women Do Not Owe You Children
Well, this might hurt the trolls and their dear patriarchy a little bit but bear and try to stay with us as we raise to you a hard-hitting truth— motherhood isn’t the touchstone for womanhood. Also, women do not owe you children and there is more to a woman’s identity than just being baby-making machines! The instant we see a woman asserting agency on her body, she is immediately subjected to hatred and vilification. The exact same is happening in Priyanka’s case.
Currently, a tweet is going viral where Priyanka’s situation is being compared to #BSF women bikers performing a stunt on Rajpath. Through this tweet, while Priyanka is being dissed for being “afraid of pain,” the #BSF women are being hailed as the “Real Bharat ki Betis” for not being afraid of pain. Just one question— why is pain tolerance a pre-requisite to be considered as “Bharat ki Beti?”
Please spare us the BS and this entire idea of motherhood and deliveries as some kind of an integral rite of passage for women!
Empathy Doesn’t Cost A Penny (Neither Does Common Sense)
It is astonishing to see the lack of compassion and humanity for a mother who has opted for surrogacy. Some trolls are fully convinced that Priyanka took the surrogacy route ‘coz she does not want to deal with the toll that pregnancy would have on her body. We’re pretty sure that these trolls aren’t BFFs with the actress and do not know a thing about her life to make such sweeping statements.
Long things short, we do not get to judge Priyanka or anyone else for a personal choice. Having a child through surrogacy does not make Priyanka any less of a mother than someone who decides to carry her own baby!
Featured Image: Instagram
