Digging up the past

A nasty trait in people: When a woman is in the limelight, people dig up her past and circulate pictures in a bid to embarrass her. The latest victim is Karnataka CM’s wife Radhika, an actor in her younger days.

Success can sometimes be a double-edged sword. With the internet full of trolls waiting to tear down the rich and the famous, successful women often bear the brunt.

When the internet came to know that H.D. Kumaraswamy would be the new Chief Minister of Karnataka, surprisingly, it was his second wife Radhika, an actress in her younger days, who was trending. Hundreds of photos of the actress surfaced on the social media, including ones in which she is belly-dancing as a teenager.

Even when the Assamese actress Angoorlata Deka was elected as MLA a couple of years back, her glamorous photos and videos from her films resurfaced. Several people even ridiculed her by saying that their leader was once a ‘bombshell.’

Why do people dig up the past of a successful woman and try to shame her for it?

Shiva Kumar, clinical psychologist, feels such attitudes are determined by a socio-political cause. “In the process of trying to climb up the ladder and win, it is a natural tendency to bring down the self-esteem of the other. Since we can’t stand someone else’s win, the attention becomes locked onto the target of our anger. Soon we can pay attention to nothing else, but only look for ways to humiliate them,” he says.

Radhika Kumaraswamy

Shiva advises the affected parties to ignore such comments and move on. And for the detractors who are posting such photos, he leaves it to their morality.

When Smriti Irani took oath as a Union Minister in 2014, the pictures and videos from her earlier TV stint were splashed across social media. Recently BJP MP Shatrughan Sinha too said, “A TV actor has been made a minister.” Many others refer to her like this. When they disagree with Smriti Irani’s take on a topic, the immediate response is, “What else can you expect from a TV actor who by luck became a minister.”

BJP MLA Angoorlata Deka

Jaya Bachchan, needs no introduction but politician Naresh Agarwal recently called her a “filmon mein nachne waali”, when she was being sworn in as an MP.

Jaya Bachchan

Actress-turned-politician Nagma feels such behaviour can be attributed to a patriarchal society that can’t stand a woman’s victory. “People enjoy digging up a woman’s past when she’s successful or associated with a successful man. And if she happens to be an actress, the trolls embarrass her even more. This is a clear example of women empowerment in a patriarchal setup. And when your detractors can’t digest your success, they try to bring you down,” she explains.

Actress and YSRCP MLA Roja too was subjected to ridicule.

“I guess people are afraid to see women rising to the occasion. I have realised that people are often jealous and apprehensive about women ruling the roost. But when I started giving it back to the attackers, they have slowed down,” she says.

When Smriti Irani took oath as a Union minister in 2014, the pictures and videos from her earlier TV stint were splashed across social media.

Srinivas Thammisetty, an SEO specialist, gives a different spin to this phenomenon on social media. He feels that people have a tendency to post and share everything — relevant and irrelevant.

“Sometimes people have the tendency to share everything randomly and not deliberately. Since the search algorithm picks up most shared and searched matters, it will start trending,” he clarifies.