THIS IS NOT A BLOG THAT TELLS YOU TO SPEAK UP AGAINST DELHI GANG RAPE CASE. IT IS ABOUT SPEAKING UP IN EVERYDAY LIFE.
A long time ago I made an fb page. It was made for a marketing
competition and it needed maximum likes to win. I fixed the theme of the page
as women empowerment (my passionate topic). I designed posters against rape, dowry and female
infanticide. Then began the publicity process or rather the process of begging
everyone to like the page. My competitors were pages promoting childhood
memories, music, crazy jokes etc. We hardly got around 240 likes while the
other pages had 1000+. The sad part was not losing the competition but the
responses I got from the guys I asked to like the page. They felt it was
against their dignity to like such a page. They classified it as a feministic
initiative and supporting such a page seemed demeaning to their pride. Some
comments I got : “ am seriously against the
ideas postd there” “ithu njan like cheythal idi urappa enikku." and some curt “no thank you”
responses. Those who liked the page I asked them to pass it on to their
friends. But they wouldn’t do that because they would get teased by other guys!!
Even a poster showing the rape statistics in India got me a response “such
things haven’t happened here. Girls simply overreact to everything. Men aren’t
so bad”.
And now after the delhi gang rape incident these guys are flooding
fb with outrage messages. Changing their profile pic, taking New Year
resolutions to respect women and blah blah blah… Why? Are they genuinely
outraged or is it because it’s the ‘in’ thing to do?
A few days back a bunch of guys threatened the gals in my class for
booing at them during a basketball match and successfully scared the girls. The
girls ran away and some even cried. But again the blame was on the girls. Why
were the gals there at 6pm and why did they irritate the guys? They deserved what
they got! Even the gals supported the whole thing saying ‘men will be men… they
will say such things and do such things. We should just not bother about this
and we should just keep away’. Now these same people have black dots as their profile pic and
write huge status about ‘society should change their attitude. Don’t put the
blame on the girls. Girls stand up for your rights.’
What’s the point? If you guys can’t change your own attitude about
woman how can you expect someone in Delhi to change it? If you girls can’t
stand up against guys who threaten you how can you stand up against guys who
threatened some girl in Delhi?
It is good to see the entire nation being united by such an
incident. It is good to see so many people protesting against this incident. It
is good to see everyone swearing about the government and planning candle
marches. But all this is useless if you cannot stand up against what happens to
you in your daily life. Feel the outrage when a guy puts you down. Feel the
outrage when you see a girl being harassed. Feel it in the everyday things
because it is these small things that build up and form the general fucking
attitude of the society.
This incident will fade away soon. Attitudes will remain the same.
Girls who speak of woman abuse will be termed as feminists and guys who support
it will be classified as ‘men with no backbone’. Life will go on as usual. Those who think I’m being pessimistic just
wait and watch. This is not the first rape incident and it is definitely not going to be the last. Let's just hope and pray these rapists get a just punishment.
