10 times Tamil heroines have been subject to double-standards

Is drinking and smoking a bad habit in general or is it just wrong when a woman does it? Why isn't it okay if a woman talks about sexual urges? Why isn't it ok to portray an assertive woman in charge of her sexuality? Here are 10 times we, as an audience, judged women actors on a different moral scale:

From Andrea in Taramani to Amala Paul in Aadai, a number of heroines have been subject to double standards. Here are ten instances.

Andrea's character in Ram's Taramani drinks liquor neat, and this matter-of-fact scene became controversial. The censors red-flagged it, making Ram to come up with cheeky posters targeting the board.

A scene from Nayanthara's Naanum Rowdy Dhaan, which involved the actor buying beer from a TASMAC shop, went viral for all the wrong reasons. Many people unreasonably shamed her for the act.

A scene from Yemaali's trailer, which featured its heroine, Athulya, smoking, invited a lot of trolls. Athulya later apologised on Twitter for the scene.

Lakshmi, a short film, created furore, as it showed its female lead having an extramarital affair. The attempt to show a woman's agency to seek her own happiness seemed to have angered the hypocrites.

Pyaar Prema Kadhal's female lead explains to the hero that having sex does not necessarily mean that the two have to be in love – a concept that defied the understanding of a section of the audience.

Jyotika, playing a cop, utters a patriarchal cuss word in Naachiyar's teaser. It created quite an outrage as people questioned its feminist angle and how 'Suriya's wife' could be shown in such a way.

Women were seen smoking, drinking, having casual sex, and making their own decisions in 90 ML, which instantly drove the chauvinists crazy. The film was tagged as a disgrace to “Tamil culture.'

A song from Vishal-Nayanthara's Sathyam, Chellamey, invited the wrath of the 'moral-police'. Nayanthara, wierdly, was slapped with a suit.

Samantha wore a bikini for only a few seconds in a song in Suriya's Anjaan, which incited a lot of slut-shaming comments. The makers were forced to remove the scenes from the second day.

Rakul Preet got mired in controversy for her smoking scene in the teaser of her upcoming film, Manmadhudu 2. Trolls accused Rakul of 'promoting smoking', describing the smoking scene as 'disturbing.'