Fiction, not fact: Vir Das responds to critics of his video against objectification of women

First came the bouquets, then came the brickbats. Vir Das is certainly no stranger to criticism — after all you don’t get to be a leading stand-up comedian without ruffling a few feathers in the process. [caption id=“attachment_2784788” align=“alignnone” width=“825”]  Vir Das spoofing the ‘ammsutra’ ad featuring Katrina Kaif[/caption] However, he may not have expected quite this adverse a reaction when he acted in a commercial for a deodorant brand, that took on sexist stereotyping in other advertisements. In a video titled “Every Sexist Commercial You’ve Ever Seen”, Vir enacted the ads for a mango drink, motorbike, ice cream and bath soap, depicting how they exploit women’s bodies to sell these products. By imitating the hyper-sexualised poses of the female models in these ads, Vir points out how odd they really are. He also emphasises how much this objectification of women is taken for granted by us, the viewers — we have become that inured to it. [caption id=“attachment_2784792” align=“alignnone” width=“825”]  Vir highlights the hyper-sexualised pose that female models in bike ads are depicted in. Screengrab from YouTube[/caption] While the immediate reaction to Vir’s video has been one of overwhelming praise — the Delhi Belly and Shaadi Ke Side Effects actor was warmly congratulated for taking on such sexist tropes — there was some criticism as well. [caption id=“attachment_2784798” align=“alignnone” width=“825”]  Vir mimics the setting of bath soap ads. Screengrab from YouTube[/caption] The negative feedback came from social media users who pointed out that Vir had acted in a very sexist film himself — the sex comedy, Mastizaade. Vir himself shrugged off the criticism with a brief message on social media:

So it appears a lot of people have seen the #HERespect Video :-) pic.twitter.com/OmnR1VICE2

— Vir Das (@thevirdas) May 16, 2016

He also chose to focus on all the positivity “Every Sexist Commercial…” had garnered. However, it seems that there were still some critics Vir hoped to get his point across to, once and for all. On Tuesday morning, he wrote on his Facebook wall:

We reached out to Vir Das for a comment, and are yet to hear back from him. Meanwhile, watch Vir Das in “Every Sexist Commercial You’ve Ever Seen” here: