Actor Sonali Kulkarni has caused quite a stir on Twitter with her recent remarks on "modern women."
In the now viral clip, Kulkarni spoke at length about how women in India are "lazy" and often "depend on their husbands or boyfriends for their own needs, without ever working for it themselves."
During an event, Kulkarni said, "In India, we, at times, forget that a lot of women are just lazy. They want a boyfriend or a husband who earns well, owns a house, and his performance at work guarantees regular increments. But in the middle of this, women forget to take a stand for themselves. Women don't know what they will do."
She added, "I urge everyone to encourage women and make them independent, so that they are capable enough to share the household expenses with their partners."
But that was not all, she went on to suggest that women are always on the "edge" and don't even like to be "complimented" or "appreciated." "In fact, they turn to the HR and file complaints," she said.
Needless to say, Kulkarni's speech is not only highly irresponsible but also extremely insensitive. In a society that is still highly patriarchal, where domestic abuse cases are rampant and the dowry system is still prevalent, putting the onus on women to bring "equality" into households is laughable.
Her speech has left netizens infuriated. Many pointed out how her remarks ignore the unpaid manual labour done by women day in and day out. Moreover, women are not even given similar opportunities as men since they are expected to take care of the family.
Speaking about the viral clip, actor and influencer Uorfi Javed commented, "How insensitive, whatever you said! You're calling modern day women lazy when they are handling their work as well as household chores together? What's wrong in wanting a husband whose earning good? [sic]"
She went on to add: "Men for centuries only saw women as child vending machine and yes the main reason for marriage - dowry. Ladies don't be afraid to ask or demand. Yes, you're right women should work but that's a privilege that not everyone gets. You're too entitled to see that may be [sic]."
Another user wrote, "The oppression fantasies of Indian men (and their female enablers) are amazing. Would outsiders believe that they live in a society functioning on women's unpaid labour, in addition to rampant sexual and physical abuse, dowry deaths, female foeticide, witch huntings, etc etc? [sic]"
Here are more reactions:
Singer Sona Mohapatra tweeted:
But there were others who were all praise for Kulkarni.
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