Alia Bhatt being trolled for her hair shows the toxic scrutiny female celebrities are subjected to

Have you had days when you just wanted to dress super cazh without a worry about putting on makeup or styling your hair? Or when you wanted to walk out of your home dressed in comfiest clothes, style be damned? Without thinking twice, you’d say a big fat yes! Now imagine every time you did, people found a way to troll you and put it all over the internet. Scary, isn’t it? Unfortunately, a female celebrity who just happened to be harmlessly doing her thing got trolled for her scalp showing through her hair. 

Alia Bhatt was recently spotted getting into a rickshaw after she decided to ditch her car, reportedly to beat the Mumbai traffic. And then it began—trolls immediately pointed out how her scalp could be seen and tried to shame her for her allegedly thinning hair. While many came to her defence saying hair fall is common after pregnancy, why is there a public presumptuous diagnosis of what’s happening to her hair in the first place? Even though those defending her appeared to do so with seemingly good intent, none of these conversations are warranted. Not the shaming, not the jumping-to-conclusions in her defence. 

Bhatt isn’t new to this—she is often at the receiving end of people trolling her for, amongst other reasons: fidgeting with her hair, her smile, her words, and just about anything. A few weeks ago, a video surfaced on the internet where someone made claims that her smile was a result of Botox gone wrong and that half of her face was experiencing paralysis. This was absolutely baseless as Bhatt took to social media to criticise such behavior. She had pointed out that it was a ridiculous assumption to make. “Women are judged and made to feel like they are not enough,” she had written, also pointing out that this makes people feel they are never enough. “This hypercritical, microscopic judgment of a human face is alarming,” she had added. 

And yet…here we are again, tearing a woman down, for no reason whatsoever. 

While Bhatt must have steeled herself by now to not let the trolling get to her, it doesn’t justify the absolute apathy that people can exhibit when it comes to female public figures. Many female celebrities have been subjected to this. Aishwarya Rai was trolled for her post-pregnancy weight gain, her accent, and for taking her daughter to events. Taylor Swift and Deepika Padukone were trolled for having had multiple boyfriends. All of these women are powerful, fierce, and immensely successful and yet, people find something to troll them for. Clearly, it’s not on them and this needs to stop. 

Lead: Getty Images

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