The Internet, as we all know, is filled with people with too much time and very little to do. Which is why they take it upon themselves to tell women - who, incidentally, have zero interest in their opinions and fragile sensibilities - what they should and should not wear in the interest of morality, culture and, our favourite, womanly sharam. There is nothing that nosy people on the Internet like more than branding famous women who are going about their lives, doing their thing, as besharam (shameless) and behaya (without honour).
The latest victim of such online moral policing is Malaika Arora. When Seema Khan posted a photo of the Chaiya Chaiya girl's pre-Christmas party, she could have hardly imagined that instead of ooh-ing and aah-ing over the small, but star-studded, gathering's merry-making ways, petty people on the Internet would instead focus on Malaika's hemline and how many inches of skin she had the temerity to expose.
The photograph, posted on Instagram, led to an avalanche of filthy comments speculating about everything - from Malaika's panties to her butt. While Malaika didn't post that photo on her own Instagram account, another photo from the party that she did share elicited the same kind of response. And, of course, both pictures generated plenty of unsolicited advice for Malaika to cover up and "act her age", whatever that means.
Clearly, the comments section on social media is where decency goes to die. So far, Malaika has treated the trolls exactly how they deserve -- with uncaring, you're-not-worthy-of-my-time silence. Good for her.
In keeping with the Internet's grand tradition of anonymous awfulness, this, of course, isn't the first time people have taken offence to a female celebrity exercising her right to put on the clothes she likes on her body.
Overzealous patriarchal bigots harassed Priyanka Chopra for days for "baring her knees" in front of the PM when she met him in Berlin last year. According to those whose sentiments were deeply hurt by her brazenly defiant choice of clothing - a mostly forgettable knee-length summer dress - showing her knees and sitting with her legs crossed in front of PM Modi was terribly disrespectful and mannerless of Priyanka.
Unlike Malaika, PC did respond to the criticism - by posting another photo on Instagram showing a whole lot more of her well-toned limbs. Priyanka : 1, Internet : 0.
In much the same way, Taapsee Pannu and Fatima Shaikh were slut-shamed for posting swimsuit-clad photos on social media. Deepika Padukone too was criticised for posting 'vulgar' photos in a crop top and short shorts from a magazine shoot. Like Priyanka, Deepika too shrugged off the haters by posting even more photos, pointedly letting them know what she thought about their comments, without deigning to engage with any of them.
The lengths to which some people will go to find something to be offended about in women's clothing is evident from the fact that they managed to turn even the sari into an ideological battle. A heavily pregnant Soha Ali Khan invited the Internet's wrath for wearing a Bengali sari to her baby shower. Why? Because it was proof that she wasn't "Muslim enough".
We rest our case. Access to cutting-edge technology and an explosion of information to enrich the mind is nothing when one is hell-bent on using the Internet only to fan the flames of their misogyny and scour social media to objectify, stalk and harass women.
What is the Internet afraid of? Legs? Or society's slipping control on the narratives of women, so many of whom really couldn't care less about what nameless, faceless losers on the Internet think about their hemlines, necklines and how many square inches of skin beyond the patriarchal permissible limit they inadvertently showed?
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