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HT Brunch Social Media Star of the Week: Aaliyah Kashyap
The 20-year-old wins this week for raising her voice against sexist hate speech and hypocrisy, while talking about mental health!
Women’s Day 2021 is right around the corner and women still continue to be subject to derogatory comments for their dressing choices. One such recent incident was highlighted by 20-year-old Aaliyah Kashyap, who got offensive comments on her Instagram post where she was wearing lingerie. “I did not expect this kind of negativity in the 21st century. We are not in the 1960s or ’70s,” she says .
Aaliyah, the daughter of filmmaker, Anurag Kashyap, is a student in Los Angeles, US, and a digital content creator. Her pictures became the butt of severe sexist comments and rape threats. “I posted them at the end of January and started getting ridiculous hate comments right after. Initially, I blocked them as I usually do, but the number kept increasing over the week. Of course, I could not block or ignore thousands of people as it got overwhelming for me,” she says and confesses: “It wasn’t the amount of people saying it, but what they were saying that bothered me and I spent days crying.”
A week later, Aaliyah put up another post speaking openly about how the comments were affecting her mental health calling out the sexism, online trolling and hypocrisy of people.
What was her parents’ reaction to it? “I did not tell them until I put it up. But soon after, I called my parents to inform them. My mom read the post and was emotional but said, she was proud of me. Whereas, my dad said, ‘It needed to be said, I’m glad you did it’.’That helped,” she says.
Aaliyah feels the judgment also partly comes because of her famous surname.
“Girls should feel confident in their skin and own their bodies. Also know that nothing is your fault, it is the fault of the people saying it,” is her message for the ladies on this celebratory day!
Who should be the next HT Brunch Social Media Star Of The Week? Nominate using the hashtag #BrunchSocialMediaStarOTW or email htbrunch@hindustantimes.com
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From HT Brunch, March 7, 2021
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