When it comes to gender equality, India has one of the worst track records going. Female feticide, sexual harassment and rape, to name but a few. The country's PM, Narendra Modi, is trying to change all that - one selfie at time.
"I urge all of you, share a #SelfieWithDaughter. Also share a tagline that will encourage 'Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao' [Save Daughters, Educate Daughters]" tweeted Modi recently, along with an image of him kissing his daughter's head.
And the hashtag has caught on, with many fathers sharing pics with their daughters on social media, from India as far afield as the US and Sweden. And by all accounts, they are lovely images.
But the selfies are part of a larger program that began in 2015 to change the way women are treated. But cultural mores run deep, and a patriarchal society such as India's cannot change overnight.
The cynic in me fails to see how a hashtag alone could have saved the 12 million girls said to have been aborted in the past 30 years. The cynic in me fails to see how a hashtag will convince judges that women don't want to marry their rapists.
Sure, an individual #SelfieWithDaughter may do little to convince some that females have value, but you have to start somewhere, and Modi is doing just that with this initiative.
RELATED: Step Towards Changing a Culture of Shame
Image Source: Twitter
Epiphanies come in unexpected places. For Rachel Taylor, the light bulb went off in an Old Navy change room.
She overheard a mother and daughter mock a plus-size tank top:
“Look! Me and So-and-so can fit in this tank top!” said the daughter while the mom laughed and responded, “Yeah, you could! That thing is huge!”
Not surprisingly, those words were hurtful to Taylor, who herself wears a plus size. After the initial sting that drove her to cry in her car, Taylor returned to her shopping.
She not only purchased the "huge" tank top, but posted a change room selfie looking "fierce" in it.
Taylor then shared her story on Old Navy’s Facebook page, where the post garnered over 150,000 likes.
While many celebrated her move, others criticized her for being overly sensitive:
"{P}osting a photo on social media is NOT an invitation to criticize, ridicule, or judge someone. Calling me a crybaby, telling me to save my shopping money for therapy, telling me to 'do something' about my weight… what does that accomplish other than making yourself look like a fool?
Sitting behind a keyboard commenting on someone else’s life doesn’t make you superior; it makes you a troll."
She's right. Casual fat-shaming goes on all the time in stores and malls, and no one bats a lid. Too bad that mom didn't take the opportunity to teach her daughter a thing or two instead of laughing along.
Such throwaway remarks aren't harmless. Though the incident wasn't directed at Taylor personally, the sentiment is so prevalent, it's no wonder she struggled to stay stoic initially.
Having said that, I applaud her for not only buying the tank but proudly wearing it. Her epiphany needs to be printed in change rooms everywhere:
“Be kind," she wrote on Facebook. "Think about others before you speak. And if someone hurts you, you have to move on.”
Image Source: Facebook
RELATED: Facebook Emojis Take Fat Shaming to Horrible New Level
We've all shouldered our fair share of baking fails, but few of us have had to face mass public ridicule.
A bakery that based a "Frozen" birthday cake on a design from New York cake-decorating tutorial site, McGreevy Cakes, was later shamed on social media for its botched attempt.
While McGreevy's stylized Elsa looks too pretty too eat, the other baker's attempt had "odd head and shoulder proportions," yellow hair, an "orange tan" and "an upsetting frown."
After before and after pics were shared on Reddit by a family member, users delighted in ridiculing the copycat cake in more than 2,000 comments like this one:
“Does the purchase price include three free counseling visits for the kids at the party?”
OK, so the likeness isn't all that, but even Orange Elsa is a million times better than anything I could come up with.
Turns out, the second cake was made by Icing Smiles, a non-profit that makes custom cakes for "families impacted by the critical illness of a child."
When asked what they thought of the cake modelled after theirs, McGreevy's commended the effort involved in a Facebook post:
"I think someone had the guts to go for it... even when, I'm sure, they didn't know if they could pull it off. They took the chance anyway and put themselves out there. And maybe it didn't come out they way they were hoping, but it's their WORK.
I look at it this way... what if it was done by one of my kiddos, or someone in my family who I love dearly? What if they really wanted to try this out, and were scared to, but decided to do it anyway, knowing they had to start somewhere? Would I be ashamed? Not in a million years.
'Cause at the end of the day, they took a risk, and instead of hiding in their safe little comfy box, they stepped out of it for a second and gave it a go. And THAT'S what I think this life is all about."
Now that's the icing on the cake from the inspirational source, and it's pure class.
Image Source: Reddit/HuffPo
RELATED: There's a Support Group for Victims of Disney's Frozen
Printer-friendly version