Switching Gere
Hollywood actor Richard Gere has angered millions of Indians, with some even burning his effigy. What makes this particularly interesting is that we are not talking of fundamentalist Muslims….nor any infraction involving a gerbil.
Angry crowds in several Indian cities burned effigies of Richard Gere yesterday after he swept a popular Bollywood actress into his arms and kissed her several times during an AIDS-awareness event.Photographs of Gere embracing Shilpa Shetty and kissing her on the cheek at an HIV/AIDS awareness event in New Delhi were splashed across yesterday’s front pages in India – a country where sex and public displays of affection are largely taboo.
In Mumbai, members of the right-wing Hindu nationalist group Shiv Sena beat burning effigies of Gere with sticks and set fire to glamorous shots of Shetty.
Similar protests broke out in other cities, including Varanasi, Hinduism’s holiest city, and in the northern town of Meerut, where crowds chanted “Down with Shilpa Shetty!”
The two appeared at a press conference in New Delhi yesterday to highlight the HIV/AIDS epidemic among India’s truck drivers.
In front of a cheering crowd, Gere kissed the giggling Shetty on the hand, then kissed her on both cheeks before bending her in a full embrace to kiss her cheek again.
“This is a bit too much,” Shetty said after the embrace.
No word yet on whether Gere’s other girlfriend got pangs of jealousy.
About the Author
An Australian immigrant to Israel, Aussie Dave has been blogging since early 2003.Filed Under: General
I am moving to Asia and opening a chain of effigy shops. can you imagine? I’d be a millionairre!!!
For a society who has been deeply damaged by colonialism can one think of a more offensive image of a white guy grabbing a daughter of India and forcing himself upon her? It is so symbolic. It is right in line with the image of the white colonist forcing himself upon a country and just taking whatever he wants.
Richard Gere should pay the ultimate price for this.
What bothers me however is those who would blame Shilpa Shetty for this.
Too often women victims of rape in India are blamed for what happened like they wanted the rape to happen or it was their fault the rape happened even when the truth might be that the rapists brutalized them and they couldn’t stop the rape from happening.
While of course Richard Gere didn’t actually rape Shilpa Shetty, I still see this whole “Blame the Woman Victim” dynamic in place. From what I saw from the video Shilpa Shetty did nothing to cause Richard Gere to act the way he did, and was in fact as shocked as everyone else was that he would act in such a disgraceful manner.
We need to defend this daughter of India, not blame her for this white man’s assault upon her.