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HomeVaanthi10 Ways Not to Respond to Jiah Khan’s Suicide

10 Ways Not to Respond to Jiah Khan’s Suicide

June 18, 2013

by Sneha Rajaram and Poorva Rajaram

Jiah Khan’s suicide is still very much a hot news topic. A lot of the media coverage of her death has been beyond cringeworthy. Here is a list of responses we found vaanthi.

1. Blaming her mother. 

As if telling your child repeatedly to love themselves is a guarantee against suicide.

2. Blaming her playboy boyfriend.
If one goes by these letters (their authenticity is still being confirmed), Jiah certainly had a complex love-hate relationship with Sooraj Pancholi. If there is no proof that he directly harmed her, he can’t be held solely responsible.

3. Beatifying her playboy boyfriend.
Spurts of the internet have launched into an impassioned men’s rightsy defence of Sooraj Pancholi. Lots of vigilante and misogynistic mud-slinging has resulted. Here is a response to the male outcry.

4. Blaming any one thing.
This is the all-time favourite for anything people don’t like. It could be a combination of societal factors, brain chemistry and life events. Perk up and smell the complexity!

5. Latching on to her aged ex co-star.
At one point, every Jiah Khan obituary acted like Amitabh Bachchan was the best (or only) thing that happened to her.

6. Dragging Salman Khan into it.
This goes for anyone’s suicide. Salman Khan is built-up and presumably heavy. Let’s not drag him anywhere. Besides, it was a trumped-up media crap shoot anyway.

7. Making her smaller than life.
When suicide dictates the entire story of a life. Not cool.

8. Spewing truisms.
Like “Life is precious.” Or “She threw it all away.”

9. Bestowing Parveen Babi’s legacy on her.
Suicide is not one-size-fits-all.

10. Disparaging depressed people.
News flash: Suicidees are not weaker than you.

Photo: Raindrop Media

Tags: depression, jiah khan, media watch

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2 Responses to “10 Ways Not to Respond to Jiah Khan’s Suicide”

  1. Reply
    V N Saroja
    June 19, 2013 at 7:06 am

    Genders apart, I have a serious issue with the concept of holding anybody other than the person who commits suicide responsible for it. Arresting a person for abetment based on just the falling apart of a relationship is a low point of our legal system. Short of someone thrusting petrol/rope on someone’s hands and watching them die as opposed to murder where you do the last bit, nothing can be called abetment to suicide, according to me. Everybody has problems, some overcome it, some live with it and some take their lives.

    I think much of the writing has been against the police arrest of Pancholi. And I do think its okay to write about that. Maybe the hyperbole could have been avoided

  2. Reply
    debiparna
    June 28, 2013 at 7:12 am

    i think so far this is the only respectable article i have come across about her death.

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