Unni Mukundan puts social media in a bind over the bindi

Amidst the gloom prevailing over alleged dowry deaths and domestic violence incidents in Kerala, the story of grit shown by Anie Siva, a 31-year-old single mom who was recently appointed as a sub-inspector of police in Kochi, was much lauded on social media.
Unni Mukundan, too, reposted a story on her and captioned it, “Women’s empowerment comes from big dreams, not big bindis.” The actor could have been speaking metaphorically, but around the time when the Women’s Commission chairperson MC Josephine had to resign following for her careless words on TV to a distressed woman, many on social media have been protesting by putting up photos sporting bindis, stating a choice of accessory shouldn’t be termed lack of empowerment.Here are a few people sharing their thoughts on the brouhaha over the bindi...
Sreeranjini Kodampally
Singer
I don’t think a bindi signifies anything more than an interest to use that accessory. Personally, I wear it if it suits my attire, or else, I do away with it. We can’t classify people based on their choice to sport it as empowered or not. And we don’t know whether Unni too meant to use the phrase thus, it is quite possible that it was used to make his words of compliment a bit catchy.
Sreejith Jeevan
Fashion designer
The struggle of being judged based on clothes is real, and it holds true to every gender. But we live in a society that has slowly evolved a sense of style. We have learnt what to wear, when and how. And in that sense a man or a woman can choose to wear what they want to a place, according to its appropriateness. A woman will easily have different styles from her yoga session to a school meeting, temple visit or a party. It is their expression. And it's practically impossible to identify a person's character by what they're wearing because they're wearing clothes for that time and space. It would be hence unfair to identify who that person is based on what they're wearing at that point of time. We need to create space for people to be made comfortable with what they choose to wear.
Anumol
Actress
I often wear bindi as I’m used to it since childhood, urged by my parents. But, I don’t think we can judge anyone as empowered or not based on their choice of clothes or accessories. At the same time, I don’t feel it’s right to judge Unni’s choice of words so quickly, either. It is possible that he just used such a phrase without thinking deeply about it or even intending to mean it like that. Times are such, that we should give our words a proper thought before speaking, without which they might get dissected to mean much more than what we meant. Basically, I believe we should all stop judging each other based on our clothes, accessories, words, and more.
Sreedevi Jayaprakash
Content writer
As I was going to bed on Sunday night, I saw several friends post pictures with bindis and wondered what it was about. It continued the next morning and though I didn’t manage to find out what it was about, I felt it was for a women’s issue and I promptly put on one myself. Because yes, women are always judged and I have felt that from my early days as a TV journalist, when I was asked why I didn’t dress in the typical kurti-jeans-jhoola combination. In fact, I also dressed up in that manner because I liked that as a fashionista, not to fit into the profession. We need to change the perception that only if one is dressed in a certain way, are they efficient and know their jobs. I have tattoos, coloured hair and multiple piercings and I am told in almost every conversation that I will not be taken seriously at the workplace.
Maybe Unni Mukundan did not mean to be judgemental when he said what he did, but also, you do not have to pull something down to appreciate a certain quality.