Who thought a game of chess would lead to trolling? Not Malvika Sharma. The actor recently posted a photo of what she thought was a fun sneak peek into her life, but it ended with trolls having a field day in her comments section. “It was just a regular Friday night for me, hanging out with friends and playing chess. I posted some photos and immediately got comments saying I was posing, that women can’t play chess. Some even challenged me to a game,” Sharma tells us, adding, “I don’t understand where this was coming from.”
During the pandemic, the 25-year-old learnt to play chess and fell in love with the game. “I wasn’t taught that chess was a ‘men’s game’, so I was confused when the comments said women aren’t as intelligent as men. It got worse when I replied to some comments and addressed it on Insta Story,” shares the Bhimaa actor. Things went to the next level as people even responded to her Stories and wrote to her saying, “You are being childish for talking about this issue on your Stories and for not ignoring it.”
Among the many comments she received, one struck a nerve for the Coffee with Kadhal (2022) actor. “They wrote that I’m arguing with the trolls using the ‘woman card’. If anything, I was trying to explain that chess is not a gendered game,” she said, adding, “When men talk about issues they face, do you ever see us (women) blaming them for using the ‘men card’? I had to block a lot of people since the post went up and a lot of men even unfollowed me because of this.”
Wanting to fight the good fight, the Kisi Ka Bhai Kisi Ki Jaan (2023) actor responded to the trolls because they targeted her profession and all women. “Some comments I received said there’s no way I can be that smart because I’m an actor. To those people, I want to say I have two bachelor’s degrees and I’m currently pursuing a master’s degree in Criminology, while being a licensed lawyer and actor. Even if a woman doesn’t have a degree, she can still be good at chess. What is so hard about the game? It requires brains, but why is it being treated as something that only men can achieve?” she ends.
