Excuse Me, Hardik Pandya, Your Misogyny Is Showing And We Don’t Think It’s Funny
For those who have just switched on your tabs or phones or laptops since Sunday, two words you need to catch up on: Hardik Pandya. The man, also a cricketer, appeared on the talk show Koffee with Karan on Sunday. There was a lot of swag on that couch that Sunday but what Pandya also brought with him in copious amounts is, well, misogyny. Of course, most of his comments were brushed under the carpet or jocularly condoned as locker room talk on mainstream television. His misogynistic remarks got him in trouble with the BCCI and he hastily issued an apology. Or at least something that masqueraded as one.
— hardik pandya (@hardikpandya7) January 9, 2019
At risk of sounding nit-picky, here’s why there is nothing right with his non-apology. To start with, though he said he would like to apologise, he did anything but. He sidestepped the entire issue, mumbled something about getting carried away and basically took no responsibility of his remarks. That’s a cop out, if there ever was one.
We want to know who are you apologising to Hardik? The women who you find attractive but can’t even be bothered to ask their name? The women you pinpoint as your sexual conquests to your oh-so-cool-parents? The women you ogle at in pubs because, ahem, you need to see them move? The women who don’t have a say or choice in sleeping with you because Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikander? The entire black population who you have reduced to your level by appropriating their race based on your skin, which you interpret as a license to treat women as sex objects?
Or, the men in the locker room you have sexually assaulted (smacking someone on the bottom without their consent is just that FYI)?
No Hardik Pandya, you are saying you want to apologise to get out of this ‘situation’ you’ve got yourself into. Money is at stake and you are worried about losing endorsements. You are losing sleep over being penalised by the BCCI who issued a show cause notice. You are in danger of losing a huge chunk of your fan base. Your entire image is on the line, according to your PR machinery.
You can’t get away by sidestepping the entire issue by saying you got carried away by the show! Here’s an idea. As a fully grown adult, how about you own up and take responsibility for your offensive remarks? So Karan Johar egged you on. Did he force you to unleash your dark side and start trash talking women in public? Did he ask you to show off how cool your parents are by bragging about the notches on your bedpost?
So, unless you are saying that the show was scripted and all you did was act the part of the misogynistic, racist person, you are going to need more than a hastily worded apology.
The women and men deserve more than a meagre wish to apologise. Mic drop!
