By Arré Bench Sep. 17, 2020
Internet trolls have long attempted to “slut-shame” women. This time, they went after Malayalam film actress Anaswara Rajan, who posted a picture of herself wearing shorts. She was soon joined by other stars like Rima Kallingal, Parvathy, and Nazriya, who all posted their photos with #WomenhaveLegs and #LegDay.
Social media can be a great platform on which to express yourself, unless you happen to be an Indian woman. In that case, every post attracts uninvited scrutiny, even more so if it happens to be a photo. Internet trolls have been attempting to “slut-shame” women for their choice of attire for as long as social media has been around, even while they blindly like photos of a topless Tiger Shroff doing his home workout on another tab. The bright side is that this usually leads to some epic clapbacks from the women involved, which is how #WomenHaveLegs became a trend this week.
View this post on InstagramA post shared by ANUTTY 🦋 (@anaswara.rajan) on
It all started when Anaswara Rajan, an actress from the Malayalam film industry, posted a photo to Instagram of her wearing shorts. Rajan, who is 18 years old, was trolled by users who found her outfit of a pink full-sleeved top and grey shorts too revealing. When people are made uncomfortable by a woman’s choice of attire, the root of the problem is usually in their mindset and not in the woman’s clothes. Rajan gave the trolls a fitting reply by posting more photos in the same outfit, with the caption, “Don’t worry about what I’m doing. Worry about why you’re worried about what I’m doing.”
View this post on Instagram
A post shared by ANUTTY 🦋 (@anaswara.rajan) on
Rajan’s colleagues from the film industry expressed their support for her by posting their own photos where their legs were visible, eventually leading to the hashtag #WomanHaveLegs gaining traction on social media.
Apoorva Bose, posted her picture with the caption: “Oh my god, you’ve got legs? Like whaaaaa?”
View this post on Instagram
Oh my god, you’ve got legs? Like whaaaaa?
A post shared by Apoorva Bose (@apoorvabose07) on
Ahaana Krishna posted her photo “to take attendance of the number of creeps who will line up in attention in my comment box to post third-rate comments.”
View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Ahaana Krishna (@ahaana_krishna) on
The trend also spread to Twitter, where more users joined in to educate people about the mind-blowing biological fact that women do indeed have legs.
Can’t believe we still have to say this, but ya #womenhavelegs 🤷🏻♀️ pic.twitter.com/BEkEIWaV5J
— Rajisha Vijayan (@rajisha_vijayan) September 15, 2020
My legs, my arms, my face, my body, my rights : and I will whatever the fuck I please, and post whatever the fuck I want to. Period. pic.twitter.com/NUHYwOrEgx
— Arya 🌹 (@RantingDosa) September 16, 2020
While trolls are an unavoidable fact of life on the internet in 2020, it’s always entertaining to see them humbled by people who refuse to be cowed by their abuse. Unsolicited opinions deserve nothing but hilarious rebuttals.
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