Mira Rajput, the wife of actor Shahid Kapoor, was recently invited for an interview at a Women’s Day event hosted by Mid-Day. She talked about being a homemaker, her marriage, and motherhood. The internet, being the unforgiving space that it is, has been completely losing it over this one statement that she made during her interview while speaking about why she is a proud homemaker. She said that her daughter Misha was not a puppy and that she doesn’t want to spend just an hour with her and rush off to work. There were some who hailed her speech as an inspiration for homemakers. Then there were others, who extrapolated this statement and panned her for things ranging from how she has a privileged background to how it belittles the motherhood of working mothers.
Why the hell do we forget to contextualise?
The clickbait headlines conveniently picked on her ‘puppy’ statement and made it seem like the most important part of what she wanted to say that day. When I watched the whole video of her interview, I realised how her words were blown out of proportion. We need to get some perspective here, because [envoke_twitter_link]Rajput made some pretty valid statements too[/envoke_twitter_link], which critics conveniently chose to ignore. [envoke_twitter_link]She clearly stated during her speech that this was her point of view[/envoke_twitter_link]. She mentioned that she had a tough pregnancy, and wanted to spend every moment watching her baby grow. Rajput went on to say that she loves being at home, and being a mother to her child and that she wouldn’t have it any other way.
Did she say that stay at home motherhood was the best form of motherhood? No.
Did she mean that working mothers think of their children as puppies? No
Did she propagate the fact that homemakers make the best mothers? No.
Let’s not forget that Rajput made an important statement when she said, “empowerment means that you have the right to choose. It is my choice if I want to be at home. It is someone else’s choice if they want to be a working mother. Both are equally valid, and neither of them should be shamed.”
The same thing happened when she appeared with her husband, actor Shahid Kapoor on Koffee with Karan and spoke about her arranged marriage at an early age. People talked copiously about how the episode glorified arranged marriage. In the interview hosted by Mid-Day, Rajput clearly stated that she understood the role that she had taken on when she was marrying Shahid Kapoor. She believes that she has more energy at her young age (22) to be able to execute her motherly responsibilities. Clearly, Rajput did not make any irresponsible statement that should have triggered such extreme reactions from the internet.
As she herself said, it is the ability to choose that is empowering, and that way, Rajput is an empowered woman who has made an informed choice and is living her life the way she wants to.
Period.
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