A group of women had gone out to dine at the Nukkadwala Restaurant on Sohna Road in Delhi, when another woman called one of them out for wearing a short skirt. Her statement that it is because “women who dress like her that other women get raped” enraged the group and when her unsolicited advice was rebuffed, she retaliated by addressing the men in the restaurant, asking them to rape the women, as they “deserved it for wearing short clothes”. An argument broke out between the factions and one of the women from the group, promptly took out her cell phone and recorded the entire encounter, which has now gone viral.
Incidentally, the woman who lectured the girl about her fashion sense is reportedly a school teacher and her advise perhaps came from that perspective. That would be a generous explanation. But it also betrays the fear in the minds of women – educated sophisticated women – about what might happen given their entrenched perception of the male mindset, which again is a stereotype that is imprinted in the female mind, based on a sense of submission to the male narrative, a habit that has become entrenched over the years for a variety of reasons mainly the ‘control’ trait in men. Its time for women to believe in themselves and change this narrative.
It has also become a habit in the “New India” for some people to dictate others’ lives, tell them what to wear, what to eat, where to go and with whom they can go. The sad part is they enforce their prescriptions through mob mobilization, either on social media or on the ground, and are often supported by the state machinery, which believes in conformity ostensibly for law and order’s sake. Its a reflection of our society’s orientation, again stemming from the ‘control’ trait and will need a top-down clearance sale for it to change. Hopefully, it will, but this clearance sale must begin at home and at school and this is s where the school teacher can make a difference.
