Truth Behind Rhea Chakraborty’s ‘SMASH THE PATRIARCHY’ T-shirt that went viral is a part of ‘Roses Are Red’ Campaign run by the popular online clothing company, The Souled Store. The campaign was actually launched in 2018 to support a Women’s Menstrual Hygiene Campaign launched by The Souled Store?
The alleged suicide of Sushant Singh Rajput has received a lot of attention from the Indian media. Viewers, fans, & family of SSR have been able to stay updated with every little development that is taking place ever since the incident took place due to constant media attention and reporting. His girlfriend and Jalebi actress Rhea Chakraborty is facing allegations and questioning by 3-agencies, CBI, NCB & ED since the actor’s demise.
Some thing that seems to have caught everyone’s attention recently was a t-shirt worn by Rhea for her NCB hearing recently. Her t-shirt read “Roses Are Red, Violets Are Blue, Let’s Smash The Patriarchy, Me and You”. This was shared by multiple news outlets and gained a lot of traction on social media as well. Fans of the actress began re-posting the image with #JusticeForRhea.
Being a responsible media channel, we at Licensing Corner decided to unravel the real meaning behind the quote and found out that t-shirt was about something completely different than it is perceived to be.
So What’s the Actual Origin of the Story?
The Souled Store, in collaboration with an NGO, GiveHer5 in 2018, launched a campaign titled ‘Roses Are Red’. The aim of this campaign was to raise funds for girls and women in rural India, and help them fight period poverty.
Through a series of limited edition, slogan t-shirts, The Souled Store helped start a conversation around equality and women empowerment – quite different from why the t-shirt seems to have gained popularity today.
1 t-shirt sold = 1 girl’s yearly requirement of sanitary napkins
The campaign also featured actors like Rahul Bose, Dia Mirza, and many prominent social media influencers like Miss Malini, Tanmay Bhat, and Aranya Johar.
We spoke to Mr. Harsh Lal, Director, The Souled Store to get his thoughts on the controversy. He said, “We’ve been getting lots of comments from fans about the t-shirt. A lot of news channels and have also reached out to us. Sadly, they seem more interested in getting their next headline rather than understanding the reason behind this t-shirt. It’s unfortunate to see how a t-shirt that was launched to help women in rural India is now being used as a tool to push political agenda, wholly unrelated to the actual campaign.
However, our determination to continue fighting for equality remains strong. We have already helped over 2,500 women across the country and aim to support 10,000 more women through the sale of these t-shirts.”
To support this cause, you can buy the t-shirt here: https://www.thesouledstore.com/tags/roses-are-red
Roses Are Red
Did you know that 80% of women in India can’t afford sanitary napkins, causing them to miss up to 5 days of school / work every month? In addition to this, a lack of education about menstrual hygiene and period management causes women to resort to unsanitised cloth, ash, husk and sand during their period. The Souled Store, in collaboration with GiveHer5, is all set to change this. In order to increase awareness about the problem and raise funds in an innovative and engaging manner, we decided to launch a limited edition range of merchandise. Our range includes t-shirts which contain various ‘Roses Are Red’ poems centred around feminism which highlight various gender based issues faced by women on a daily basis. You can either buy a t-shirt to donate to the cause or make a contribution directly to GiveHer5.