'Smash the Patriarchy, Me and You,' Twitterati Roar Rhea Chakraborty's T-Shirt Message! Here's Why the Slogan Stands Significant

“Roses are red, Violets are blue, let’s smash the patriarchy, me and you,” – the message on Rhea Chakraborty's T-shirt has found resonance among several Bollywood celebrities and also netizens, amid the jubilation on her arrest. She was even captured waving at the cameras after her arrest by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB). This was seen as a message that she would fight back. She is battling! Many came in support of the actress and roared the slogan, which eventually began as one of the top trending hashtags on Twitter. According to media reports, Rhea was arrested on drug charges, a probe running parallel to late actor Sushant Singh Rajput's death case. She was sent to jail for 14 days during a video hearing by a magistrate, who rejected her bail on September 8, 2020.

There seems to be nothing that SSR case has not touched. Followed by the late actor’s tragic demise, TV channels and social media have blamed everyone. What started as justice for SSR has unfortunately acquired a dangerous connotation, because it may now mean injustice for someone, anyone. A dangerous soap-opera is playing out there. While a section of Twitterati rejoiced Rhea’s arrest, despite acknowledging the fact that the NCB made no official mention of her using drugs, others came out in solidarity with the actress, roaring the message carved on her T-Shirt. Let's Smash The Patriarchy: Farhan Akhtar, Sonam Kapoor, Vidya Balan and More Come in Support of Rhea Chakraborty. 

Check Out Few Tweets:

Twitterati Roar the Slogan!

Why We Need Feminism in 2020?

Witch Hunt in 2020!

Actress Neha Dhupia in Solidarity With Rhea!

Anurag Kashyap Tweeted As Well

Richa Chadha's Tweet:

Why the Slogan Stands Significant

The vicious hatred spewed against Rhea, who is still an accused, cannot be ignored. The way in which the actress was mauled, abused, threatened with rape and murder, accused of being a witch, drug-peddler and money-laundering scamster, reveals the relationship among patriarchal ideology, political power and corporate media in our country. What could or at least, should have been, a conversation about mental health and suicide prevention (if it is a suicide), has become one of locating ‘guilt’ in a woman. On the first day of her questioning by the anti-drugs agency on September 6, 2020, Rhea was mobbed and hounded by the media, with microphones thrust in her face as she walked the short distance from her car to the agency’s office. This only shows the extent to which women’s bodies, their safety and respect mean nothing in reality to those, who might sing loudly of women’s empowerment and their safety on the mainstream. And all this, in the middle of a pandemic that requires strict social distancing.

Throughout this media circus, often Rhea was branded as a witch, who does jadu tona and allegedly isolated Sushant from his family. It even led to the vilification of Bengali girls altogether as people started tagging us Bengali girls as "black magic practitioners".

The jubilation over Rhea’s arrest tells us how much we have regressed back in time. The online discussions on the death of SSR reveal a culture of shame and ignorance around mental health and a heavily patriarchal society. Attributing guilt on her of trying to take her partner “away from his family,” strongly play into constructing a ‘bad woman.’ And this is why we need to ‘smash the patriarchy.’

The CBI was called in, the ED was called in, the Bihar Police was called in. All the above are still looking for evidence against Rhea, something, that they haven't found yet. Then came the NCB and her arrest for "procuring drugs for Sushant" is being played out as Justice for Sushant, and is being made to look like she is a murderer. Whereas, the harsh reality is, that if Sushant was taking drugs and had the NCB been probing drugs in Bollywood before his death, he may have been arrested as well. But there's absolutely no word about that because, as patriarchy puts it, 'Rhea may have forced a 34-year-old to smoke weed'!

Rhea may or may not be at fault in the death of Sushant Singh Rajput. That is something yet to be decided in the court of law. For now, she has been charged with "procuring drugs for Sushant", which is also a crime, but not what was the purpose of the #JusticeForSSR movement, and we hope that this is the beginning of the probe on use of drugs in Bollywood, Indian Corporates, colleges and hostels, politics, religious gatherings and elsewhere in India and that every person guilty of procuring and smoking weed is caught. Meanwhile, let the justice system decide if the actress is guilty or not of "killing Sushant Singh Rajput" and let us not carry on with this witch-hunt, hound her and call her a murderer already.

(The opinions expressed in the above article are of the author and do not reflect the stand or position of LatestLY.)

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Sep 09, 2020 01:22 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).