Sona Mohapatra slams ‘male privilege and stupidity’ of Twitter user who questioned her post on women’s safety

Singer Sona Mohapatra shared a video from one of her live shows and commented on the predominantly male audience. She chalked the low turnout of women up to the fact that they do not feel safe stepping out of their homes.

“An audience that is 97% male in my #yearend concert in the heartland shows that we still have a long way to go #India. Women need to feel safe to even leave their homes to attend this in 2021, that’s the truth. I sing with hope, I sing for a fair, love-filled world. #HappyNewYear,” she tweeted.

However, a Twitter user questioned her post and wrote, “A woman singing between 97% men and still says women need to feel safe? Yes, India still has a long way to go!”

Sona hit back, criticising the person for ‘male privilege and stupidity’. “I’m privileged, on stage with a team, a star, have security, police and the mindset of a lioness and a support system now that lets me fly. Shocking how many a**holes, soaked in their male privilege and stupidity do not understand such a simple truth about women’s safety in public,” she wrote.

In an interview with Hindustan Times last year, Sona talked about how lesser opportunities for female singers was one of the reasons that prompted her to produce a documentary on herself, titled Shut Up Sona. In 2017, she found herself ‘in a corner’, she said. “I felt the opportunities for female artists were getting smaller and smaller over the years. Out of 100-odd songs that would release in the mainstream, not even seven or eight would have a female voice with enough lines even in a romantic duet. Somehow, things are just not stacked up to help women to create big artist brands in India,” she said.

Also see: Sona Mohapatra says all her savings went into Shut Up Sona, then pandemic curbed her means of income

“One is for me to sit around and complain about it, but I am not one of them. It’s time to take charge of my own narrative and my own destiny, so to say, and marry all my love – for travel, storytelling, music and expression. So, 300 hours of footage, three years of shoot and Shut Up Sona came to being,” she added.