I first saw Rakhi Sawant in an awful music video a few years ago, in which she played the bespectacled-but-miniskirted secretary to an improbably attractive boss.I don’t think she was particularly well known back then (I’d certainly never heard of her). Now she’s famous and practically everyone I know hates her.
Rakhi hatred is especially interesting to me because of the number of issues of class and gender it brings up, so many that one post couldn’t begin to cover them. (By which I mean I know this is very incomplete and don’t yell at me later). Conservative critics dislike her because she is willing to wear revealing clothing and doesn’t act apologetic enough about it. The ‘liberal’ upper classes can’t disapprove of her sexuality (though they hastily tell us they think she’s ugly) or they’d lose their liberal cred. But she’s mockable for not having had that much education, for being ‘crass’, loud, often ignorant, and in some circles, for not speaking fluent enough English. As a result, anything she says is taken as a joke. We’ve managed to turn her into a mere punchline. I often suspect that she’s invited onto talk shows and the like purely so that the hosts and the audience can collude in mocking her. I missed the episode of Koffee With Karan (popular talk show/ self congratulatory, autoerotic exercise featuring a successful bollywood director and his friends) on which she appeared, but I’m told that it started out that way. I did see her on a Serious talk show (NDTV’s The Big Fight), where the topic of discussion was role models for Indian women. It was ugly, the other panelists and even the host were smirking at her in a way that was rather obvious. [At one point someone in the audience asked a question about women altering their bodies to look a particular way. Actress Dia Mirza, all pretty and eyebrowplucked and legwaxed, smirked and said that all such questions should be directed at Rakhi since, you know, she was the only one who had done anything of the sort.]
I told a friend of mine that I planned to write this post, and he seemed rather surprised. He said he’d thought that, as a feminist, I would disapprove of her – surely by being skinny and exposing her body she was participating in society’s sexualisation of the female body? And maybe he has a point, but Rakhi Sawant has done more for feminism in India than just about any other media personality I can think of. She’s talked about the casting couch and her experiences with it, something very few women in the industry would do, considering the kind of pressure they’re under to appear virginal and untouched. She’s talked about the eating habits she’s inculcated to stay as skinny as possible (since her income depends on her staying that way), and about her experiments with plastic surgery.
And perhaps most importantly, the Mika episode. Indian musician Mika (not to be confused with the adorable Mika Penniman) kissed Sawant at a party. She says it was forced, and all the video clips and pictures seem (to me) to indicate that this was the case. She sued. Nothing came of it, really – it’s hard enough to have someone found guilty of sexual assault as it is – when you’re Rakhi Sawant it’s so much worse. Responses ranged from a) Rakhi Sawant, LOL b)She didn’t make enough of a fuss at the time/That’s not how *I* would act if someone sexually assaulted me (because, you know, we all follow a sort of rule book for behaviour when something like this happens) c)It’s Rakhi Sawant. She probably wanted it at the time/she’s doing this for the attention. Etc. Mika, however, made a humorous music video about the incident (yes, this nauseated me too). Everyone stopped caring after a while. But it’s important to me that she sued. Compare this to the high profile Aishwarya Rai – Salman Khan relationship. Everyone seems to know that he assaulted her, but she’s never done anything about it; it’s as if it never occurred to her that he could be punished. Then Rakhi Sawant storms in and demands that maybe men should be held legally accountable for their actions. And India laughs it off because it’s Rakhi Sawant.
On the NDTV show, while all the other participants were going on about the Dignity of the Indian woman and how today’s woman wants to be perfect physically, mentally and emotionally (which is apparently a good thing and no pressure at all. wtf?), Rakhi Sawant insisted that a) women should get to choose who they want to be b) Indian men objectify all women, regardless of what they wear, and little can be done unless the men change. Again, it’s Rakhi Sawant and so it was laughed off.
Which is all very convenient, of course. Because class and gender aren’t merely reasons to hate her, they’re tools to make sure she’s never heard – a lot of what she has to say might actually be dangerous.