Suhana Khan is just 16 years old. She is not into any form of public life, and is happily living her teenage life. But she is the daughter of Bollywood mega star Shahrukh Khan. And according to Indian media, that is enough for them to objectify a private individual, a teenager, by using pictures of her available on the net.
Earlier in the day, India Today published a story titled: “20 photos of Suhana Khan to spice up your Friday, in case you had other plans“.
Well, there were no direct sexual references, but the message was loud and clear. And that upset many on Twitter:
Depressing to see the vile stuff being peddled by big name news brands. Nothing is sacred for clickbait journalism. Just sick pic.twitter.com/ZFcVWYQOKm
— bhatnaturally (@bhatnaturally) March 31, 2017
In the above screenshot, it is ironical than on one hand India Today is insulting a young female, and on the other hand, it is organising a “Woman Summit”. Soon, the outrage spread as more user joined in:
Suhana khan is 16 years old, indiatoday wants you to spice up your Friday by looking at 20 photos of a 16 year old. Brilliant journalism. pic.twitter.com/IED46imDyN
— Ankit Jain (@indiantweeter) March 31, 2017
Dear @IndiaToday, you better have an explanation for this sexualization of a teenager. pic.twitter.com/0lYDprai7H Pic via @indiantweeter
— Aakash Raj Razdhan (@Ateendriyo) March 31, 2017
If Modi can be held responsible for his party people talking crap, who should be held responsible for this kind of journalism? pic.twitter.com/s51MrTqIOp
— Rahul Raj (@bhak_sala) March 31, 2017
Spare the poor 16 year old girl. Shame on @IndiaToday @rahulkanwal @gauravcsawant https://t.co/QCkcWm0eqH
— anurag parepally (@AnuragParepally) March 31, 2017
Eventually, India Today decided to take action. No, they did not take down the article, but instead decided to change the headline to: “Flashback Friday: 20 photos of Suhana Khan that will make you look forward to her Bollywood debut“.
Instead of taking down the article @indiatoday has changed the headline!!! ? pic.twitter.com/BLlM6SHYSc
— Ankit Jain (@indiantweeter) March 31, 2017
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But, the URL to the story still reads: “suhana-khan-photos-wild-party”, which clearly shows the intention of the site. In future, if anyone runs a search with those keywords, he will surely land at this page.
This is not for the first time though that SRK’s daughter has attracted media’s attention in rather sexualised way. India Today itself almost exactly a year back had published her photos and titled it “This photo of Shah Rukh Khan’s daughter Suhana in bikini along with AbRam goes viral“. The article had a photo of hers from her Facebook profile too.
