A Reddit user recently posted a surreptitious photo of a woman tagged under “/r/funny”. Apparently, the reason that user european_douchebag (yep) found the woman, Balpreet Kaur, Reddit-worthy was that she gasp! has facial hair–and, as it turns out, isn’t ashamed by it in the slightest.
When Balpreet’s friends found the photograph, under a post titled “I’m not sure what to conclude from this,” she reacted to the negative and positive comments far better than I would have. In an explanation she left on the original post, Balpreet explains her reaction, turning it into a positive discussion of body image and her faith.
“Hey, guys. This is Balpreet Kaur, the girl from the picture. I actually didn’t know about this until one of my friends told on facebook [sic]. If the OP wanted a picture, they could have just asked and I could have smiled 🙂 However, I’m not embarrased [sic] or even humiliated by the attention [negative and positve] [sic] that this picture is getting because, it’s who I am. Yes, 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. […]”
She goes on to explain a little more about her faith, and never once does she attack the asshole who thought it would be funny to take a picture of a woman who didn’t fit his idea of “beautiful” and laugh about it on the Internet.
Shockingly enough, after seeing her reaction to the post, european_douchebag put up a personal apology to Balpreet and anyone else he may have offended. He acknowledges that his intentions were cruel and unnecessary, and encourages people to stop dehumanizing individuals because of their appearance.
“I know that this post ISN’T a funny post but I felt the need to apologize to the Sikhs, Balpreet, and anyone else I offended when I posted that picture. Put simply it was stupid. Making fun of people is funny to some but incredibly degrading to the people you’re making fun of. It was an incredibly rude, judgmental, and ignorant thing to post.”
The Internet isn’t a soulless pit after all!
Photo via reddit.com
