Johannesburg - Former Muvhango actress Mona Monyane was not impressed when she was heavily criticised by her followers on Instagram after she publicly announced her second pregnancy.
Some followers felt that it was too soon for the actress, who has a little daughter, to fall pregnant again. The actress hit back with a stinging response.
SHARING THE GOOD NEWS
Mona says it all started when she shared the good news that she was expecting her second child with her actor husband, Khulu Skenjana, with a picture of her 20-week-old baby bump. “Seeing as I am in my second trimester, it was only a matter of time before my pregnancy was noticeable, so I decided to be the one to share the happy news before any publications did,” she says. Instead of joining in her happiness, some of her followers on Instagram posted nasty comments about her second pregnancy, but little did they know that Mona would hit back.
THE CLAP-BACK!
“This one is for the ladies who have opinions about when other women can and cannot have children. Is this not my vagina? Did I loan my vagina from you? Did you somehow put in a petition to have ownership of my vagina, and then I decided that I’m not going to release my vagina to you? I still want to have children. Unless we’re sharing, then your opinion does not matter, my love. So, women, it’s already too rough for us to be turning against each other, please, just be happy for other people,” Mona said in a video on Instagram. “I think because people have a sense of ownership over anyone whose job puts them in the public eye, they tend to express themselves in ways that can come across as extremely disrespectful and invasive. Questions about my financial ability, as well as comments expressing opinions that it was ‘too soon’, really had me wondering why I had to explain choices regarding my body.”
THE FEMINIST COMES OUT
The actress says that she was touched when two women commented on her post and shared their stories which were similar to hers. “I had a couple of women comment on my page and express that they too have had negative comments for getting pregnant in quick succession. What really affected me was they both lost previous pregnancies and yet people were making them feel bad instead of helping them celebrate the new life growing inside them,” says Mona. “That’s when I decided to share my opinion on the matter. I hate everything that has to do with breaking down the morale of women in any shape or form. We already live in a world where women are objectified and aren’t able to express full ownership of their bodies due to oppressive patriarchal structures. To have other women further enforcing that oppression onto other women is something I struggle to just sit back and watch.”
