Recently, Chinmayi Sripada shared an incident where her husband, actor Rahul Ravindran asked their two-year-old daughter to hug him and when she refused, he respected her decision and didn’t force her. Her post received mixed reactions and the singer has now clarified her stand on ‘consent’. Also read: Chinmayi Sripada puts an end to surrogacy rumours by sharing selfie with baby bump
What actually happened
An ex-user reacting to the singer’s recent Instagram stories about her daughter and husband tweeted in Tamil, “Well, if it was the case of a 2-year-old girl or boy, if the mother comes to hug him/her, would you say the same?”
Chinmayi responded, “If at any point my daughter does not want to be hugged by me – her mother who gave birth to her and her twin brother – I will let her hold off on the hug until she is ready to be hugged.”
She further added, “I would not force him to hug me because I want to. The same applies to my son. If you don’t understand this then you don’t understand consent. And you would never force people and children to do what they want. In many languages, the concept of consent is lost on many people. No wonder fragile egos can’t accept ‘no’ for an answer.”
Twitter reacts to Chinmayi’s comment about her daughter
Many others also shared their views on Chinmayi’s post. One tweeted, “If your kids feel unsafe around you then you have failed as a human being, they are too innocent and naïve to even begin to think like that. Children are taught to be cautious of strangers but being cautious of your own parents means you have failed as a human being.”
The singer responded to the tweet, writing, “My husband told her he respects her autonomy. Any sane person can understand that unfortunately there are more crazy people out there than anything else. And yes I can see how your child’s consent is constantly being violated in the way you speak.” The person then told the singer, “All I can say is that people like you don’t trust humans very much and maybe you should look at yourself before blaming others. Not everyone is bad and from what I can see, this is like blowing the horns in front of a lazy bull.”
‘Small people should also get respect’
Some people supported Chinmayi. One person tweeted, “Saying ‘no’ to something can be due to many reasons other than making them feel insecure.” Another tweet also said, “It is true that most children are abused by someone very close to them, often their own parents. But that doesn’t matter at all. A child may not want to hug you for many reasons, if you don’t respect that and force it, it only teaches them that they should accept it.” Another person tweeted, “How does respecting your child’s wishes make your child insecure?”
An X user also tweeted, “She is absolutely right in teaching them the importance of consent right from the beginning. There should be no physical touch with any child without their consent. That is what will ensure their safety from victimization.” Another wrote, “Little ones should be respected too, right? Teach them about consent early on? You don’t have to give them any dubious explanations, but let them know that their consent is of utmost importance. It is a tool they can use to protect themselves. And who better to teach them this than them.”
New Tweets
The singer, in a lengthy note on Tuesday, explained how she has ‘regularly said things and faced widespread abuse’. She tweeted, “Talking about consent and boundaries in a country that kills its daughter if she marries of her own free will – in a country where the soup boy who abuses his girlfriend who leaves him – is a hero. I have regularly said things that have been subjected to widespread abuse and a hurtful batch of complaints. The meme/media page is a cesspool of the most abusive comments you’ll see from people. I have always spoken up about what the culture here has normalised…”
She further added, “Everyone had to make an issue when I said ‘my daughter’ whereas anyone with normal intelligence should have no problem when a parent says ‘mine’. But – I’m expecting common sense from people whose standard response to anything they dislike from a woman is to shut up Lanza or say my husband is gay. These same people commented on infertility before kids – now they say IVF surrogacy and question who the father really is. Everyone should know and understand what kind of people are out there in society…” In other tweets, she criticised people who brought up old surrogacy allegations.
Chinmayi gave birth to twins, a son and a daughter, on June 18, 2022. After the singer shared the news of her baby, a section of online users claimed that her children were born via surrogacy. Chinmayi shared several posts in 2023 explaining why she did not share pictures of her baby bump.
