No one can predict if something they posted on the internet would "go viral" or not. But Pakistani women can predict the consequences of going viral on the internet. They will either be slut-shamed or called talentless or both. Recently, a TikTok of a girl named Ayesha went viral on the internet and as expected, Pakistani men on social media sites had a field day passing lewd comments on her even though she was dressed in clothes which are considered modest in the context of Pakistan. She was shamed for her dance moves which were called "provocative" by the same men that were retweeting and sharing her video.
Then comes the category of people who called her dance "cringe" and questioned why people were enjoying and appreciating her TikTok when there are other people who have done things "more worthy" of praise. This is similar to what happened after Dananeer Mobeen's "Party ho rahi hai" video went viral. They compared her to Zara Naem, who had topped the global ACCA exam around the same time when Dananeer's video went viral and said that Zara should be appreciated by the media instead of Dananeer because she made our nation proud.
The people who draw these comparisons should realize that the internet is a not a limited space where two different types of women cannot be appreciated simultaneously. Media should belong as much to women as it does to men.
Dananeer and Ayesha's videos should be appreciated because they were enjoyed by and provided entertainment for many people. Their videos were appreciated and recreated by people across the border as well, including Bollywood celebrities.
The same people that were overly critical of Ayesha's Tiktok are now overjoyed that Madhuri Dixit has done a rendition of Ayesha's Tiktok. This also makes me question that why we don't celebrate our youth and their work until they get validation from abroad?
If you do something that gives joy to people, you are not talentless. Moreover, in this day and age of social media, where highly paid jobs such as "content creator" are emerging, being able to make content that inspires and engages so many people should be considered an achievement and an asset.
It is high time that Pakistanis start appreciating and valuing the women that give us joy instead of tearing them down or pitting them against other people who deserve appreciation as well.
The fact that this girl was criticized for getting "unnecessary" fame only highlights the double standards of this society because so far I have not seen people criticizing Akhtar Lava for getting famous after his video "Lahore da pawa Akhtar lava" went viral. A man is allowed to do whatever he wants to while a woman can not even dance on her friend's wedding without the fear of being judged only because this society lives on gender discrimination. And reasons like these do not let women live their lives freely. They always have this fear that if their video reaches social media they can be critiqued for anything they were doing only because of their gender. And so many posts…
I definitely agree with the point of view that women going viral trigger Pakistanis more, as if they cannot bare the fame and attention given to a woman. The hatred, vile comments and slut-shaming of a woman should not be acceptable at any level. In fact, it raises the question of where these feelings of hatred are coming from? Are Pakistani men so insecure that they get triggered if a woman gets fame, which by the way was not in her control since social media is a funny platform where content "going viral" cannot be manually controlled.
However, I cannot help but look at this issue from a different lens. The people like Ayesha and Dananeer should surely enjoy the…
The funny thing is the people creating these videos have no control over the virality of their own content. When people end up complaining over the virality of something, they are essentially pointing fingers at the society that made the video go viral, not the content creator. Yet the content creator always seems to be the center of the hate. People who compare it to other metrics, such as getting good marks in an exam, often ignore that content related to such metrics is available on the internet. One example was Dr. Hafiz Waleed Malik, recently awarded 29 medals. While this news became popular, it was very short-lived and did not spread like wildfire. People need to understand that they…
What really bothered me about this video going viral was the context in which it was spread. When I first saw the video, as a dancer, I found the choreography and the dancer both very stiff and subpar. However, then I realised that it was going viral for being too 'vulgar' and 'inappropriate' for a wedding. A Pakistani woman can do just about anything on Tiktok or Instagram and be sexualised and ridiculed for it immediately. It's especially triggering because we have all seen men at Mehndis, doing floorwork and dancing on item songs wearing dupattas because apparently that is considered funny. A man twerking on the floor at a Pakistani wedding will be laughed at and met with good…
I only found out about this video from this post, since I hadn't been keeping up with social media trends for a while. It's absurd to me that when women go viral, they have to look, act, and speak a very specific way, otherwise they are subjected to immense criticism and sexualization. Men, regardless of their vulgarity or attire will be accepted across social media. When the things men and say become memes, Pakistani audiences tend to laugh with them, almost in an appreciative way. But when women become memes or go viral, its to mock them and laugh at them.
I believe it also stems from the idea that women on the internet (especially in Pakistan) cannot be funny,…