With every woman who speaks out, and there are more and more, there are people who think it is okay to demean her comments. This year, there were a multitude of cases where women were trolled for either speaking their mind, or for innocuous reasons such as wearing a spaghetti strapped top.
Nevertheless bullying and trolling doesn’t deter these ladies who continue to tweet, post and share their thoughts on social media.
Here are the women who were most trolled in 2017:
Mithali Raj
The Indian women’s cricket team captain was trolled for sharing a picture of herself wearing a spaghetti strapped top on one occasion. Another time, a sweat patch on her shirt was enough for the trolls to come up with hateful comments.
Priyanka Chopra
The star was bullied because she posted a photo of herself wearing a tricoloured dupatta with a white top and denim jeans. She was slut shamed and one user even suggested legal action against her. One user said that she had disrespected the Tricolour by wrapping it around her ‘filthy’ body.
Navika Kumar
The Times Now journalist was trolled by making the fact that Rahul Gandhi went to watch Star Wars just 6 hours after losing elections in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh. The report was called a special exclusive and was branded with the hashtag #AreYouSeriousRahul. Twitterati had a field day making jokes about this.
Sagarika Ghose
The journalist was trolled after she displayed a lack of understanding of the China-India issue. She tweeted India withdraws troops but China will continue patrolling? What about a Chinese withdrawal? Pls confirm @MEAIndia”
However, the Twiterati was quick to point out that patrolling was never a problem. In fact, it was the construction of roads that was the issue. “Are you sure you’re a journalist?” one user tweeted.
Shobhaa De
De isn’t new to being trolled, and in 2017 she was trolled a number of times. Twitter took the most offence when she made a sarcastic comment on the fact that Mithali Raj was given a BMW after the Indian cricket team’s performance at the ICC World Cup.
"Oh Lord! Please protect our amazing women cricketers from crass commercialisation and greed that has ruined most of our Boys in Blue" she wrote.
Users took offence and came to Raj’s defence.
“Why should women not benefit from deals ? Our men cricketers have done very well” tweeted one user.
Jagriti Shukla
Journalist Jagriti Shukla received rape threats after she slammed murdered journalist Gauri Lankesh.
"So, Commy Gauri Lankesh has been murdered mercilessly. Your deeds always come back to haunt you, they say. Amen," she tweeted.
However unsympathetic she may have been, the replies she received were scary and unwarranted. “Let this saffron bitch be gangraped by oxens. Jai gomatha,” said one user.
Twinkle Khanna
The actress was trolled after she came to her husband’s defence, following Kumar’s comments about comedian Mallika Dua on a TV show. She posted about how words have to be seen in their right context, and then posted two jokes about the incident. Twitter was not amused, and neither was Mallika Dua. The star later apologised for her reaction.
Fatima Sana Shaikh
The Dangal actress was bullied after she put up a picture of herself wearing a swimsuit. She was repeatedly asked to “show some dignity at least in this pious month of Ramzan".
Faye D’Souza
On her TV show, a Muslim cleric told Faye D’Souza to come to work in her underwear if she wants to be equal to men. Yasoob Abbas said, “Underwear pehen ke aaye, tab mard aur aurat barabar ho jayenge.”
"If you think you can rattle women while they are doing their job and they will run back into their kitchens, cover themselves up and leave the world for you to conquer, then I have news for you – we are not going anywhere," Faye replied.
Raya Sarkar
24-year-old Raya Sarkar took the #MeToo campaign by putting up a crowd-sourced list of academicians who have been accused of sexual harassment. Her list includes professors from Jawaharlal Nehru University, IIT, TISS etc.
"I'm getting so much hate. From death threats to rape threats. I've stopped looking at my 'others' folder," Sarkar, wrote on Facebook.
All of these women stood up to their bullies, and apologised if they thought that they genuinely made mistakes. We love their confidence. Here's to many more women speaking out loud and clear in 2018.
Also Read: Five Feminist Hashtags 2017 That Trended And Made Global Impact
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