Vigya Atri
Recently, at an event, Katrina Kaif made it very clear that she hates being referred to as “XYZ’s girlfriend even after 9 years of being same industry!
“After nine years of hard work, and by the grace of god, you are still referring to a successful professional as somebody’s girlfriend? And then you are talking about equality for men and women,” she said.
The girl made a lot of sense and it instantly reminded us of the time Anushka Sharma was set to perform at IPL 8 opening ceremony. A lot of websites and even leading national dailies referred to Anushka Sharma as Virat Kohli’s girlfriend in the headlines. It was Virat Kohli’s girlfriend performing at the IPL ceremony, and not Anushka Sharma, a successful Bollywood actress. It might not seem like such a big deal to many, but take a moment to think that Anushka was there, performing on her own merit and not because she was a cricketer’s girlfriend.
We got in touch with a few of our friends to find out if these sort of references happen in the non celebrity side of the world too. Unfortunately, while not as common, they do happen.
“I remember at my first job, there was another girl who joined around the same time as I did. Her boyfriend was two years senior and had worked with a few of our present colleagues before. While initially, everyone referred to her as his girlfriend to bring in some sort of connect, which is quite normal (we all tend to find mutual friends with new people), they continued to refer to her as his girlfriend even two years down the line! Imagine, you’re slogging your butt off to make a name for yourself, only to be introduced by your own colleagues as ‘so and so’s girlfriend,” says Meghana, a PR professional.
Why is this attachment always one sided? Why is it that we hardly see Ranbir Kapoor being referred to as “Katrina Kaif’s boyfriend” or Virat Kohli being mentioned as “Anushka Sharma’s partner?”
Or better still, if both partners are equally recognised, why the need to attach or latch one of them on to the other?
Girls, have you or anyone you know had an experience like this? Let us know in the comments!
See Katrina Kaif’s full interview below:
