Bois locker room was an Instagram group which was made by school students in south Delhi. They were allegedly sharing pictures of teenage girls followed by an obscene conversation about their private parts. The leaked chats steered a massive outburst of anger and enrage. After some time, a girls locker room page also emerged on Instagram, which was allegedly sharing pictures of men with girls sending lewd comments about the guy’s private parts.
The story is not that simple, At around the same time, there were some Snapchat screenshots that were being circulated. The screenshots witnessed a conversation between two guys, where one of them was planning a sexual assault on their classmate. The other guy alerted his classmate about the sexual assault. But later after investigation, it has been found out that the guy who was planning the sexual assault is actually the girl whom the sexual assault was being planned for.
The most imperative point here is that are we all really as surprised as we see people on Instagram are? Honestly, I feel disheartened to say that I am not surprised. We’ve been living in a misogynistic society where objectification and sexualization has been normalised. In India, there were 32,559 cases of rape reported in 2017. And these are the only ones that have been reported, According to India’s National Family Health Survey, 80% of women who’ve experienced sexual violence never tell anyone about it.
Now I truly condemn every boy’s behavior who was a part of bois locker room. But I also believe that it was not entirely their fault, our society is to blame for it too. The ratio here is 9:1, The former being the boys who were involved and the latter being our society.
From Bollywood to Age-old concepts of love, we’ve seen misogynistic notions everywhere. We are living in the 21st century but our dear Bollywood is still holding on to our glorified sexist past.
MISOGYNY 101 (How Bollywood romantizes sexual assault and misogyny)
Kambhakkt Ishq, a 2009 movie staring Akshay Kumar and Kareena Kapoor Khan normalises sexual assault. In one of the scenes, a quarrel is depicted between the two rival leads, Kareena is speaking incessantly, Akshay starts kissing her so as to shut her up which apparently has been portrayed as ‘Normal’ and that every guy should do this to shut a lady up. Even in one of his recent Bollywood songs ‘ek chumma’, The story entails how he beats up some of the goons who were teasing Kriti Sanon which gives him the right to kiss her without consent. Any sexual act without consent is sexual assault.
These are just some examples from the thousands of movies that becomes an impetus for normalising sexualization and misogyny. Some other recent Bollywood hits which instills these beliefs are Kabir Singh, Pati Patni Aur Woh, Sonu Ke Tittu Ki Sweety and others
This is not just it, We also have some songs which have millions of views on YouTube.
Genda phool by Badshah – “Kaatun teri ticket ticket
Khelta nahi cricket cricket
Par teri le loon wicket wicket”
Buzz by Badshah and Aastha Gill – “Jahaan se hona chaahiye wahin se hai tu thick”
Tu mere agal bagal by Pritam (sung by Mika Singh) – “Haan tujhpe right mera, Tera rasta jo rokoon, Chaunke ka nahin”
Fevicol se by Sajid Wajid – “Mai to tandoori murghi hu yaar, Gatkaale saiyaan alcohol se”
Tarefaan by Badshah – “Jeans ae daali
Daali toone jo woh teri booty pe tight
Baby jaise mera flow”
Brown Rang by Yo Yo Honey Singh – “Ban mitran di whore
I mean mitran di ho”
Such obscene and vile comments have been normalised in India. If you scrutinize the lyrics carefully, you’ll find something very fascinating. These lyrics have a huge level of similitude with the comments used by the boys involved in Bois Locker Room.
What people don’t understand is that, this rape and sexist culture has been entrenched in our society since a very long time. I am in no way supporting girls locker room either what they did was completely out of the line and disgusting.
India has around 2.4 lakh pending cases in courts related to rape and protection of children from sexual offences (POCSO) Act till December 2019. The rape conviction rate of our country is 32%. Our criminal justice system have a massive shortage of forensic labs, fast track courts and investigators.
The situation is more horrific for people from lower economic and social background, They cannot afford a lawyer to fight for their justice. The years of mental and physical trauma burdens them to such an extend that they prefer suicide over seeking justice which for them seems out of their reach.
The reason why we saw an upsurge of voices calling out for the girls who’ve been slut shamed by people from bois locker room is because they could relate with them. But right now, what is consequential is that we speak up not just for girls who’ve been objectified by those boys, But for every nirbhaya this country has ever seen, for every voiceless oppressed person there is. The situation could go worse than it already is.
We should do away with this normalization of sexist and misogynistic comments. Call out people who use comments that are lewd, vile, obscene and vulgar even if it’s said in humorous way. A witness is as much responsible as the offender. We all hear such comments every day, it’s time to finally put an end to this. Let’s all speak up in real life rather than virtual.
This article is authored by Prishita Singh, student of Ramjas college, Delhi University.
Also Read – Crime Against Women : A Situation Of Cauldron Enormity And Monstrosity To Women
Note – The information contained in this article is for general information purposes only. We endeavour to keep all the information up to date and try our level best to avoid any misinformation or any kind of objectionable content. If you found any misinformation or objectionable contents in this website please report us at [email protected]
Interested to publish an article at Law Corner? Click Here to submit your article.