In an open letter, Maanvi Gagroo pens her views on the “Bois Locker Room’ case
The Cyber Cell of Delhi Police has detained a 15-year-old student of a prominent school in South Delhi in connection with the Instagram chat of #BoisLockerRoom group where rapes were glorified and photos of underage girls were being shared and objectified.
Actor Maanvi Gagroo’s letter goes this way
The measure of any society is how it treats its women and girls.”
– Michelle Obama
#boyslockerroom
The question is 'How did we get here?' Is it the systemic normalisation of violence against women in our pop culture? Casual rape jokes? Dated yet a deeply internalised idea of 'giving the daughter away in marriage' or the widely accepted assertion of patriarchal ownership our rituals are ridden with?! Yes, misogyny begins at home. It seeps through our words. It reinstates through our actions & it is enabled through our gender-based morality.
No, we cannot absolve ourselves of responsibility by blaming it all on bad parenting because this is not the first or the only time a 'boys locker room' has existed. And it sure as hell won't be the last. We are all complicit. Every time you laugh at a sexist joke (sexism: noun; discrimination, prejudice or stereotyping on the basis of gender), every time you decide to save for your daughter's wedding but your son's education, every time you ask a rape victim what she was wearing and why she was out... every action of yours is potentially rewarding or punishing a young mind for their words and actions.
Instagram on Tuesday said it has removed the objectionable content featuring minor girls on its platform, amid the outrage over the content.
Swara Bhasker expressed: "#boyslockerroom a telling tale of how toxic masculinity starts young! Underage boys gleefully planning how to rape & gangrape minor girls. Parents & teachers must address this with those Kids.. Not enough to ‘hang rapists'.. we must attack the mentality that creates rapists!"
"This a multi-faceted problem. Because everyone is still squeamish about sex education in our populous/moralistic country, teenagers are confusing porn for sex education! And now data is free. How dangerous! This will explode in our faces in the next five years sadly, I reckon," tweeted Richa Chadha.
Actress Sonam Kapoor took to her Instagram Story and wrote, "This reeks of entitlement and gross negligence on parents' part. The parents are to be blamed for raising sons who don't respect human beings and spoiling the. And, boys you should be ashamed."
Actor Siddhant Chaturvedi shared a photo on Instagram with a locker room as a virus. "Extreme Red zones.#BoysLockerRoom #GirlsLockerRoom Disgusting,"
(With added inputs from IANS)