Mithali Raj trolled again: It's a shame that India's women achievers are judged ONLY by physical traits

How much skilled Indians are in handling women icons? The latest trolling of Mithali Raj, the captain of the national women's cricket team, on Twitter because a photo posted by her with friends showed a bit of her cleavage. The critics said the ace batswoman did not have a dressing sense and needed to take care of her honour which was at stake because of the exposed cleavage.

Also read: 'Are you porn star'? Mithali Raj gets dressing-down from Twitter for her 'dressing sense' 

Mithali is not the first woman icon to face such reaction. In the recent past, actor Priyanka Chopra was criticised for not covering her legs while meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the US while filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma tweeted a photo of tennis star Sania Mirza with her jersey and skirt flying up while making a serve. Though Varma used the photo for "exposing regressive minds" through a new short film but choice of such a photo did not go down well with many. She was being "limited to cheap sexist mindset and objectifying" was one's observation.

Even Mithali isn't facing the same ordeal for the first time. A few days ago, a Twitter post by the Indian captain showing her sweaty armpit was treated as a major issue by a male Twitter user and the former gave back an apt reply to him and earned accolades.

These instances speak much about the way we see women, irrespective of their identities and claims to fame. The degree of objectification of women who have made identities of their own by the virtue of ambition and hard work suggests what the ordeal of the countless faceless women of this country could be. Legs, armpits, cleavage, thighs, navel – the physical attributes are what our women of substance are judged by and trolled as well. Shameful!

When Sourav Ganguly takes off his shirt, it is machismo but...

During the 2003 World Cup in South Africa, a photograph of Sachin Tendulkar standing amid sea waves had earned him the tag of a "superman". The year before, former captain Sourav Ganguly's taking off his shirt and waving it from the balcony at the Lord's to avenge the act of Andrew Flintoff in India earlier that year is still considered one the best examples of machismo displayed by an Indian.

So, if bare-it-wall is a perfect example in men's cricket, why such an insignificant event of partial exposure of cleavage is creating such a noise? It was good to see some fans came to Mithali's rescue this time and we hope their numbers fast outsmart those who believe in objectifying women at every instance.

Three years ago in September 2014, ace actor Deepika Padukone had lashed out at an English daily for pinpointing her cleavage with the headline "Omg. Deepika Padukone's cleavage' saying she is a woman and had cleavage. The publication had later deleted the tweet but the incident had left a bad taste in everybody's mouth. 

It is Mithali Raj's turn this time and we are certain that Deepika will be standing by the sportswoman's side in this controversy.