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Maanvi Gagroo On Boys Locker Room: 'Boys Will Be Boys' Is Not Gonna Cut It Anymore
Maanvi Gagroo, penned an open letter regarding ‘Bois Locker Room' where some teenage boys from south Delhi allegedly use the platform for sharing photos of underage girls
On Monday, a report about an Instagram chat group called 'Bois Locker Room' made the headlines. The chat room reportedly has some teenage boys from south Delhi, who allegedly use the platform for sharing photos of underage girls. Snaps of the chats were leaked online, on Sunday, which showed the guys objectifying women, and promoting rape culture.
The incident led to many men and women condemn the act and call for legal action against the boys. It also led to many expressing the need for better sex education in schools. Four More Shots Please actress Maanvi Gagroo, penned an open letter regarding the incident for The Quint. She started the letter with Michelle Obama's quote, "The measure of any society is how it treats its women and girls."
Bois Locker Room
In the letter, Maanvi raised many questions about a society that normalises violence against women, from giving the daughter away in marriage to casual rape jokes. She added, "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. " read a report in The Quint.
We Are All Complicit
Maanvi said, we are all complicit and should speak up against our own when needed. "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."
Victim Blaming Needs To Stop
Society is also known to victim blame, when it comes to women based violence, and Maanvi called out the culture saying a woman can decide what she wants to do with her body.
She added, "why don't we see our men through that same lens of skewed rationality?"The letter further read, "Why have we placed a woman's 'izzat' in her vagina but no such yardstick for her male counterpart exists?! We live in a society that accepts assertion of patriarchy in more ways than we care to realise. Male privilege is real and male entitlement, a real threat. We need to do better than this. We need to bring our children up better. We need to adopt a Skinnerian model of punishing toxicity and rewarding empathy. We are shaping minds with our thoughts, words and actions. Every single moment."
#StopThemYoung
Maanvi concluded the letter with, "We have to do better. And 'boys will be boys' is just not gonna cut it anymore." Mumbai police's official Twitter account has also expressed outrage on the incident by tweeting, "Boys will be boys - never an acceptable excuse earlier, will never be one ever after #StopThemYoung". However, we are yet to hear from other celebrities in the industry.
After the chats were leaked on twitter and a complaint was lodged about a private Instagram group, Delhi Police Cyber Cell lodged an FIR. According to recent reports, police have also apprehended a 15-year-old boy and are probing the matter.
