If you thought that societal pressure ended for female celebrities after they tied the knot, you thought wrong. The pregnancy rumours begin as early as the day after the marriage, fuelled by constant reports of supposed baby bump sightings by the gossip mill. Tired of battling maternity leave and pregnancy queries, three badass female celebrities took a stand – all within the past one week.
In an interview with Hindustan Times, Kareena Kapoor Khan slammed the media for hounding her about her impending motherhood. “I’m pregnant, not a corpse. And what maternity break? It’s the most normal thing on earth to produce a child. It is high time the media back off, and stop treating me any different than I ever was. Anybody who is bothered shouldn’t work with me… but my work goes on as is, like always. Stop making it a national casualty,” snapped Khan.
Elsewhere, Sania Mirza found herself on the receiving end of this presumptuous question by journalist Rajdeep Sardesai: “Amid all the celebrityhood, when is Sania going to settle down? Is it going to be in Dubai? Is it going to be in any another country? What about motherhood? Building a family? I don’t see that in the book. It seems like you don’t want to retire just yet to settle down.”
The tennis champion was quick to point out, “You don’t think I am settled? You sound disappointed that I am not choosing motherhood over being number one in the world at this point of time. That’s one of the questions that as women, we have to face all the time. First is marriage, then is motherhood. Unfortunately, that’s when we are settled and no matter how many Wimbledons we win or number ones in the world we become, we don’t become settled.”
Hollywood’s darling Jennifer Aniston too has been going through her fair share of scrutiny and finally decided to do something about it. In an exclusive column for The Huffington Post, she lashed out, “Let me start by saying that addressing gossip is something I have never done. I don’t like to give energy to the business of lies, but I wanted to participate in a larger conversation that has already begun and needs to continue. The objectification and scrutiny we put women through is absurd and disturbing. The way I am portrayed by the media is simply a reflection of how we see and portray women in general, measured against some warped standard of beauty.
“For the record, I am not pregnant. What I am is fed up. I’m fed up with the sport-like scrutiny and body shaming that occurs daily under the guise of ‘journalism,’ the ‘First Amendment’ and ‘celebrity news,’” wrote Aniston.
Hear, hear. We couldn’t agree more.
You may also want to read:
Kareena Kapoor Khan’s guide to being happy and loving yourself
