Pakistani actor Ushna Shah after finding herself embroiled in a controversy following her tweet about her 'sexist' and 'demeaning' comments to a pizza delivery guy, has now come to her defense.
In an attempt to clear the air, the 29-year-old Cheekh actor penned an extensive note on Twitter to calm the storm that was caused following her tweet.
“I’ve never been good at masking truths and pretending to be something I’m not,” she said adding that “I do not condone using the “be a man” card. It was something I was not proud of that I resorted to at a desperate time.”
Also read: Ushna Shah insults a pizza delivery guy and Twitter is fuming
“The fact that it is the only thing that worked made me want to discuss it publicly and create conversation about masculinity and patriarchy (why else would I tweet it, look at my track record of discussing gender roles and generally the public stances I’ve taken for women, LGBTQ and the breakdown of stereotypical gender roles),” she added.
Explaining the entire episode further, she said: “Once I said "be a man" after many exasperated attempts to make him trust that I was strong enough to hold the dog. It worked. Yes, it's sexist. A desperate measure I used at a desperate time. Instinctively and desperately I resorted to the approach knowing it would work on a Pakistani man.”
“Nobody is above it. Nobody is particularly proud of it either (I hope). . Life here in these woke times is a series of hit and miss. Many a times I have seen almost everybody I know use examples to explain things to their help or the masses that normally wouldn't be considered with the times, but sometimes that is the only way to convey a point, yet so many casting virtual stones over a tweet here (see what I did there).
“The idea of the tweet was to show that in this unfortunate world the only thing that could convince a boy to trust a girl holding back a dog (and yes his issue was that I was holding the dog, not the boy servant who normally does) was to use the masculinity trigger.
“On a closing note: I should like to tell the twitter court as well as my followers one thing: I have not often used twitter but if and when I do, my tweets will not just be a series of self promotions.
“So my dear warriors of the twitter world, if what I tweet is not comprehensive to you and offends you, please, I beseech you, unfollow. And if you care to understand the CONTEXT before spewing out your e-rage, follow away,” she concluded.
The fiasco had begun earlier when Ushna tweeted that she passed ‘demeaning’ and ‘sexist’ comments to a pizza delivery guy at 2:30 a.m.
According to the actress, she told the man that “mard banein” (be a man), “aap ek chaar saal ki bachi nahee hai”, (you are not a four-year-old girl) and “mardaangi peida karein” (try to be manly). The delivery guy, she wrote, was scared of her growling pitbull dog.