London: A Sikh US student's dignified response
to a tasteless post making fun of her facial hair has earned her a
legion of fans.
A man took a photo of Balpreet Kaur and uploaded onto Reddit in the 'funny' category with the tagline 'im (sic) not sure what to conclude from this', Daily Mail reported on Wednesday.
The aspiring neurosurgeon discovered the picture - which shows her
standing in a queue - and, instead of flying into a rage at the person
behind the cheap dig, she posted a comment explaining why she didn't
remove her hair.
Ms Balpreet, an Ohio State University student,
said, "I'm not embarrassed or even humiliated by the attention
[negative and positive] that this picture is getting because, it's who I
am.
"Yes, I'm a baptised Sikh woman with facial hair. Yes, I
realise that my gender is often confused and I look different than most
women."
She refused to attack the person who had posted the
photo, which many viewers accused of being mean and deliberately trying
to draw laughs at Ms Balpreet's expense.
Ms Balpreet said to
the original poster that if he had wanted a picture he should have just
asked and she would have smiled, and invited people to say hello if they
saw her on the University campus.
Her eloquent response to the person behind the picture drew her an army of fans, who called her an 'inspiration' and 'awesome'.
Some wrote to her to express their concern that her body hair might be a
sign of polycystic ovary syndrome, which can prompt excessive body hair
in the patient.
But, again, the student replied to their responses, assuring them her doctor had said it was just her hormones.
"I've been to the doctor regarding this and it's just a side effect of my hormone levels during my teenage years.
"The hormones have returned to normal but the hair is still there.
That's fine :) I don't regret anything nor do I view it as an
unfortunate thing."
The Reddit user who posted the picture was branded 'shallow' and 'rude' for posting her picture.
He then responded apologising for his behaviour
This was her response to that comment:
"...I'm a baptized Sikh woman with facial hair. Yes, I realize that my
gender is often confused and I look different than most women. However,
baptized Sikhs believe in the sacredness of this body - it is a gift
that has been given to us by the Divine Being [which is genderless,
actually] and, must keep it intact as a submission to the divine will.
Just as a child doesn't reject the gift of his/her parents, Sikhs do not
reject the body that has been given to us. By crying 'mine, mine' and
changing this body-tool, we are essentially living in ego and creating a
seperateness between ourselves and the divinity within us. By
transcending societal views of beauty, I believe that I can focus more
on my actions. My attitude and thoughts and actions have more value in
them than my body because I recognize that this body is just going to
become ash in the end, so why fuss about it? When I die, no one is going
to remember what I looked like, heck, my kids will forget my voice, and
slowly, all physical memory will fade away. However, my impact and
legacy will remain: and, by not focusing on the physical beauty, I have
time to cultivate those inner virtues and hopefully, focus my life on
creating change and progress for this world in any way I can. So, to me,
my face isn't important but the smile and the happiness that lie behind
the face are..."
Read her full response and the discussion here:
http://www.reddit.com/r/funny/comments/109cnf/im_not_sure_what_to_conclude_from_this/?sort=new#c6bmnym
Source:
http://www.ndtv.com/article/world/sikh-student-in-uk-taunted-turns-into-hero-for-poise-and-grace-272535?ndtv_rhs
http://shine.yahoo.com/women-who-shine/sikh-woman-balpreet-kaur-turns-cyber-bullying-incident-203500244.html
