Why RJ Malishka’s ‘Cringe’ Show And The Objectification Of Neeraj Chopra Is Sexist

Imagine going somewhere to talk about the Nobel Prize or the Booker Prize and having to answer questions on one’s romantic assertions! That was exactly the fate of Olympic gold medalist Neeraj Chopra when radio jockey (RJ) Malishka Mendonsa and her team at Red FM were dancing in front of him before commencing a Zoom interview session with the track and field athlete.

The purported video clip — that was shared on Twitter last Thursday shows the RJ and her team dancing to Uden Jab Jab Zulfen Teri from the Hindi film Naya Daur (1957) — ever since sparked a row inviting a barrage of backlash from netizens.

Chopra became the second-ever Indian to win an individual gold in the Olympics, and the only Indian to win a gold medal in the Tokyo Games 2020. As the nation celebrated the 23-year-old’s historic win and India’s 100-year wait for a track and field medal in the Olympics, several stories were reported about Chopra’s humble beginnings in a farmer’s family in Khandra village near Panipat in Haryana. However, amid the unfurling of respectful content, some set the bar low by indulging in questionable acts.

In the clip, Mendosa or RJ Malishka, as she is popularly known, is also seen carrying flowers and gesturing towards Chopra. Sharing the clip on Twitter, Mendonsa had written, “Ladiesssss..Yes I got the hard hitting, deep answers too but..Take the first 4 secs before the cam moves to the zoom call to guess who we are dancing.” She also offered Chopra a “jaadu ki jhappi” (a hug) virtually, to which Chopra politely replied with a Namaste and said, “Namaste... Aise door se hi Namaste (I’ll say Namaste from a distance)”. Raising perhaps an important point in respecting and not violating personal boundaries.

The online backlash

Several Twitter users called out their act, terming it as ‘disgusting,’ ‘cheap’ and ‘cringeworthy’. While some said how the dance and song and the gesturing must have made Chopra feel ‘awkward’, others called display of such behavior disrespectful towards the Olympic gold medalist.

IRS officer Parul Singh slammed the video as “absolutely crass and cringey”.

Author-historian Vikram Sampath said, “If shameless objectification had faces this is how it would look.”

One user also asked the RJs to “stop romanticizing male players”.

Several others pointed out that if the genders were reversed, this “move” would have led to far graver consequences.

Several pointed out how ‘sexist objectification’ isn’t limited to females only. In another recent interview done by Times Now anchor Navika Kumar, Chopra was asked about what he thinks of the attention he is receiving from female fans. “It is good but to tell the truth, I am focusing on my game,” Neeraj Chopra said. When prodded further if he has a girlfriend or what his plans are regarding the matter, he said, “Will see later, now my focus is on my game. There is no one now.”

Time and again, Chopra reiterated that it’s the game that matters. It’s the game that has given him the Olympic gold. And, it’s the game that has made him the nation’s glory. Whether he is a heartthrob among his female fans, whether he has a girlfriend or not, or whether he plans to have one are reductionist questions that take attention away from the athlete, his game and seems to suggest condescendingly that women want to know about the love life of Chopra as they couldn’t be more interested in athletics. It is neither a job of a journalist nor the prerogative of good journalism to ask Chopra about his love life or to ‘lighten’ the subject of athletics with questions on romantic alliances or female fandom, both which have no bearing on Chopra’s historic win, about which the interview was supposed to be in the first place.

Sexist objectification of Neeraj Chopra

The reason why it should be called out is not because the purported romanticization and sexual objectification of Chopra equals a straightforward gender role reversal with a male anchor hypothetically interviewing a female sportsperson. From the Indian Premier League (IPL) cheerleaders to anchors and female sportspersons, or women in any field including the male-dominated vestiges of sports, the history of sexual objectification of women runs too deep and long. It is not difficult to find popular listings of women cricketers like Harleen Deol or Smriti Mandhana being sexually objectified as “hot” or compared with Bollywood actors, saying how they scored well in the looks department as well.

Also read: Indian Women's Cricket: The Male Gaze And The Sexist Premier League

The male gaze with respect to women in popular media is so visceral that questions on a woman’s love life, marriage and motherhood have been considered as routine fare on national television. In fact, it is so internalized by male anchors that even someone like veteran journalist Rajdeep Sardesai asked tennis player Sania Mirza about her plans of settling down and becoming a mother. The occasion of the television interview was, however, the release of her autobiography Ace Against Odds. Mirza had responded befittingly, saying, “You sound disappointed that I’m not choosing motherhood over being number one in the world at this point of time. But I’ll answer your question anyway, that’s the question I face all the time as a woman, that all women have to face — the first is marriage and then it’s motherhood.”

Recently, Indian women athletes like Saikhom Mirabai Chanu were hailed as ‘Bharat ki Beti’ by several news reports, once again resorting to the patriarchal notion of seeing women as the nation’s daughters. It would be a historical blunder to say that what RJ Malishka did compares to sexual harassment or sexist objectification of women, had the genders reversed. It doesn’t, because the chequered history of #MeToo and women being subject to stalking, sexual harassment or the male gaze is too long, internalized and all-pervasive.

Also read: MC Mary Kom, Mirabai Chanu, Manika Batra: Why Are Women Athletes Hailed As 'Bharat ki Beti'?

However, this doesn’t excuse what the RJ and her team displayed. The sexual harassment narrative can't and shouldn't exclude men. RJ Malishka's act takes Chopra’s consent for granted, which is a wrong evaluation of consent to begin with. The symbolic gesturing towards Chopra with flowers, play-acting as star-struck women, the giggles, the Bollywood song and dance routine all were out of place, questionable and objectionable. Chopra replied to the jaadu ki jhappi request — which violates the boundary of consent and amounts to virtual body aggrandizement and predatory behavior — with a lesson in respecting boundaries. It is an affront that begs a review through the lens of workplace conduct, and evolving conversations on sexual harassment at the workplace where a guest is clearly left feeling uncomfortable and awkward. The understandable allusion to Chopra’s locks through the lyrics of the song and play-acting as girls as going weak in the knees for Chopra was an attempt at ‘Bollywoodization’ of a subject and the personality that had nothing to do with the histrionics and over-the-top simulation of voyeuristic flirting. Why must we trivialize everything and resort to the decayed traditions of going gaga over someone without any rationale or respect for his or her achievements?

This dumbing down display also stereotypes women as non-serious producers and consumers of content, and reinforces statements like ‘women don’t understand politics, women don’t consume sports’.

(Edited by Amrita Ghosh)

Follow us on Instagram for the latest updates.