- Keerthana Menon's viral head-shaving video was misinterpreted as a protest against marriage pressure
- She clarified her decision was an impulsive personal choice with no family pressure involved
- Keerthana urged normalizing women shaving their heads, saying it gained attention due to gender
A young woman named Keerthana Menon recently went viral after shaving her head, with many social media users claiming she had done so to protest constant family and societal pressure to get married. The viral video sparked widespread discussion, with many praising what they believed was a bold stand against traditional expectations.
In the Instagram video, Keerthana is seen calmly sitting as a man shaves off her long hair. She holds a cloth beneath her head to collect the strands as they fall. The clip was captioned "POV: My mom planned my marriage", leading many viewers to believe that she had shaved her head to avoid arranged marriage proposals.
However, Keerthana has now clarified that the speculation is false. In a statement shared with NDTV, she said there were no marriage plans or family pressure behind her decision. According to her, the viral caption led people to draw incorrect conclusions.
She explained that shaving her head was simply an impulsive personal choice. She also said she had shared the full story in a YouTube video but never expected the clip to go viral. Keerthana added that she believes people should normalise women shaving their heads and that the incident attracted so much attention only because it involved a woman.
"No one planned my marriage, and it was just my impulsive thought. I have shared my full video on my YouTube channel as well. I never thought it would go viral, and it is something people should normalise because it's not a big thing, right? It got attention because it's a girl shaving her head, so yeah!! One day morning I just felt like shaving my head because I'm a person who loves changes, so I told Mom, and we together went to a nearby temple and did that," she explained.
This clarification comes after the video fuelled conversations online about societal expectations surrounding women's appearance and marriage in India.
The discussion also brought renewed attention to another video shared earlier by Instagram user @kajals_move_, who shaved her head because of relentless pressure from her family to get married. She explained that although she loved her hair, she felt she had no other way to resist the expectations placed on her.
In her video, she said the decision was deeply personal and not made lightly. She also spoke about the reactions she received after shaving her head, questioning why people stared at her because of her appearance. She further pointed to what she saw as a double standard, arguing that men are rarely judged as harshly for making similar choices about their appearance.
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