THE BOYS LOCKER ROOM & THE LOCKED MINDS OF THE SOCIETY

"Draupadi, the wife of Pandavas, was held by her hair, dragged and disrobed in the royal court of Kauravas by Dushasan. Her dignity and her respect was burning in that court and the meek society of royal people kept watching. The situation is no different today and rather more concerning, when school going adolescents are disrobing the dignity of minor girls and women on social media."  

An Instagram group named "Boys locker room" has been trending on social media like wildfire. Boys and girls of age ranging from 14-18 years are sharing objectionable images of minor girls and women. They are slut shaming schoolgirls, glorifying and planning to gang rape them and even threatening to kill them. The gravity of this issue, I am sure at this juncture, needs no further clarification. This issue parks some fundamental questions which can shake the very roots of our society.

  *Have we failed as a society?

  *Are we moving towards a demented society where rape is a common phenomenon?

  *Has society ever been or will ever be sensitive towards women?

Cursing the education system, the government, our past is simply, to my mind, futile. These run of the mill arguments have never and will never bring any change. Let’s come straight to the meat of the issue as strong individuals and stop beating around the bush.

Unlimited access to porn, dead silence of the society (especially parents and elders) on issues pertaining to sex and adolescence, considering issues like these as a social taboo to speak about, and demeaning of women in our society at large are some of the pressing reasons why a horrific issue like this can crop up. It shows the level of madness and the degree of psychological disorder of these kids. 

Porn, at present, is just a click away. We as individuals( including you and me) consume it just like any other product. But, the psychological effects of it on young children, adolescents and adults are way more than what we can imagine. It is, in no time, turning individuals into people who look upon women as an instrument to fulfil their personal animal instinct. This incident is an ostensible example. The repercussions of which are clearly visible now. 

Parents and elders in our so called civilised Indian society of a whooping 1.3 billion people consider speaking on matters of sex and adolescence as a taboo. We consider it against our divine five thousand year old culture. But as individuals we have to understand that a perverted information to us is just a click away. If we don’t speak and talk to these adolescent people they are anyway going to know it from a source which is ready to corrupt them from their very roots. Therefore, it won't be an exaggeration on my part to park the view that this incident is a mere reflection of who we are in totality.

Important issues pertaining to ‘consent’, ‘permission’, ‘respect', ‘dignity’ of a woman are never a matter of discussion. Feminism is considered as a foreign and elite concept not to be discussed in our Indian society. Rather, on the contrary, it is looked down upon. The very onus is thrown on the woman for her dressing style and her attitude. This is sheer insanity and must be condemned on all grounds.

Let us all admit the fact that, we as a society, are a bundle of hypocrites. We pray to the Goddess with great valour and dignity, for strength, power and prosperity. But the ground reality of women paints our face with an indelible black ink of shame and regret.