Outraged out of all proportion
On Monday, Richard Gere appeared at an AIDS awareness concert with Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty and, agter Shetty complimented Gere on his performance in Shall We Dance, Gere clumsily attempted to parody one his own moves.
And, with an almost dreary predictability, the rent-a-mob came out to play.
Groups of men burned and kicked effigies of the actors in protests across India, including in the northern Indian cities of New Delhi, Kanpur, Meerut and Varanasi as well as in the central city of Indore.
Some called for the actors’ deaths. Others wanted public apologies.
And now Shetty faces possible legal consequences after three lawyers filed complaints claiming that the embrace was an “obscene act”.
The Bollywood star, alongside two television stations, also faces charges over the airing of the footage from the event, after legal papers were filed in the town of Ghaziabad.
Many legal experts doubt these charges will ever come to court and the Associated Press reported that such criminal filings “are common in conservative India. They add to a backlog of legal cases in the country that has nearly crippled the judicial system.”
You have to wonder about the state of mind of people who are willing to see their country’s legal system grind to a halt in order to make a - frankly pathetic - point about a fake embrace.
Thursday 19 Apr 2007 | Paul | India
For a society who has been deeply damaged by colonialism can one think of a more offensive image of a white guy grabbing a daughter of India and forcing himself upon her? It is so symbolic. It is right in line with the image of the white colonist forcing himself upon a country and just taking whatever he wants.
Richard Gere should pay the ultimate price for this.
What bothers me however is those who would blame Shilpa Shetty for this.
Too often women victims of rape in India are blamed for what happened like they wanted the rape to happen or it was their fault the rape happened even when the truth might be that the rapists brutalized them and they couldn’t stop the rape from happening.
While of course Richard Gere didn’t actually rape Shilpa Shetty, I still see this whole “Blame the Woman Victim” dynamic in place. From what I saw from the video Shilpa Shetty did nothing to cause Richard Gere to act the way he did, and was in fact as shocked as everyone else was that he would act in such a disgraceful manner.
We need to defend this daughter of India, not blame her for this white man’s assault upon her.
Scott, when you say: “Richard Gere should pay the ultimate price for this,” are you being mad, stupid or satirical?