Boys locker room :In the wake of new horror, it is disgusting and saddening to see how women are being objectified as playthings and treated like sex toys by boys, who have been brought up with the “Boys will be boys” mentality nurtured by their parents.
Boys locker room
A bunch of Delhi boys has come up with a condescending group chat on Instagram where they’ve shared nudes of a few girls in their grade and passing about nasty comments on the morphed photographs. The group has been named “Boys Locker Room” inciting a bunch of minors, some as young as 14 with a huge male ego to comment and objectify girls as mere playthings.
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The anonymous sender of the screenshots of the group chats shared the thread on Instagram which reveals to us the sick thought process of guys talking about gang rape and other sexual assaults without a hint of fear of exposure.
The boys involved in the group chat, active and non-active participants have been named by the girls in their Instagram stories and is trending virally on social media. To counter the claims made by the victims of such cyberstalking and sexual assault, the friends of the perpetrators have resorted to defending the heinous actions committed by their friends, some being girls which just bring light to the dire state of our culturally wholesome and diverse Indian society.
The incident was first reported on Twitter by Ashna Sharma, Anuvaa, and Mehar Singh Dua. The screenshots posted didn’t even take a minute but to go viral, shedding light on the pathetic vindictive act. These brave women took it to the panel and held strong even while their DMs flooded with direct rape threats.
Boys locker room 2.0
It was also reported that these boys also went on to create another page, “Boys Locker Room 2.0” on Instagram. Many influencers on Instagram, who are basically students from Delhi University, Delhi Public School, and married, have taken account of spreading the word as much as they can. The Netizens have taken it to their hands, and word has spread like a wildfire.
“These boys will pay for what they’ve done,”
quoted an influencer on Instagram.
One of the victims reached out, she clearly stated how these boys harassed her and her brother for months and threatened to rape her if she ever spoke up. This incident really shook a lot of us from within, she had the courage to finally call out on the boys who did this to her via private text which was posted on an influencer’s story without revealing her identity.
Internet’s most loving and Netflix’s movie rant’s face — Kusha Kapila has also marched onto the front to shed light on such hideous acts taking place. However, one of Instagram’s influencer was seen defending her “friends” from the group, later which it backfired her when screenshots of them discussing her went viral. The influencer quickly apologized and turned to Kusha Kapila for advice. But then, the DMs and comments she has received are beyond imagining. Some took it too far by shaming and calling her, “Rape supporter,” on the internet.
“I told one of my guy friend that I wanted to get into Indian politics one day to change the way women are treated in this country. He told me that I can’t do that because I’ve previously posted revealing pictures of me on Instagram. This is what’s wrong with India,”
said Anoushka Chandra.
“It all narrows down to the fact that they feel they can easily get away with this,”
says Tanya on Twitter.
When Women fail to empower and stand up for each other, this atrocity will only grow in magnitude. In other news, we notice a similar incident where another group of boys casually talking about ‘gang-raping’ one of their friend’s girlfriends with the others being an accomplice to the act. The sender, who sent the screenshots has clearly stated that he wanted no part in the act or in the discussion their group once it took a wrong turn. This is clearly, a shocking reminder about the society we live in which is deep-rooted with toxic masculinity and male chauvinism. Lewd comments on social media from young boys who are to shape their future in a constructive manner promote rape culture as more and more women join the struggle for being treated as equal beings, in a deeply engraved patriarchal society.
These men or rather boys have gone a bit too far this time. Let’s rewind the time, rapes have increased ever since the most horrific tragedy — gang rape of a veterinary doctor in Hyderabad, whose body was set on fire and dumped under a bridge has sent shockwaves through India, with hundreds of women taking to the streets in protest.
These alleged group of boys on Instagram are caught exchanging provocative rape threats and nude pictures of underage girls on there,“Boys locker room,” chat. The stance on, “It’s just talking,” is not tolerable, because last time we checked according to IPC Section 345D of Stalking, IPC Section 292 of Obscenity, and IPC Section 345C of Voyeurism is indeed a punishable crime.
Article 345A and 345D of the IPC provide punishment for cyberbullying and cyberstalking of women. The Articles 354C provides punishment for Voyeurism, which is defined as
“Viewing and/or capturing the image of a girl or a woman going about her private acts without consent, where thinks that no one is watching her is a crime. This includes a woman, using a toilet, or who is undressed or in her underwear, or engaged in a sexual act.”
The Delhi Police have released an official statement regarding the same, what appalled us the most was the audacity of these boys to make “rape threats,” to those who posted the screenshots. The went further ahead and quoted, “I have to make some calls.”
The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO), 2012 enlists all the activities that will be enlisted and treated as acts of child pornography and the punishments vary from 5 years to a lifetime of imprisonment accompanied by huge amounts of fines to be paid by the perpetrators. Section 16 and 17 of the Act also extensively cover the consequences that will be faced by anyone abetting to the act or engages with the perpetrators committing such an offense will be fined and depending on the severity of the situation could also face imprisonment.
While we’ve listed the acts that condemn this provocative texting done on social media, what we really like to question the authorities of India. What changes could you bring in order to stop such a punishable crime? For starters, would filing a PIL against the tech giant, Facebook to take a step forward to monitor chats completely unbiased for the safety of women?
The reports say, most of the boys either hail from powerful political backgrounds to get away and some are below the poverty line. Does it make any difference? A threat should not be taken lightly irrespective of your gender, and one should shed light on such awful acts taking place right under our nose.
On reports surfing the internet, the Delhi Police have booked the entire gang of “Boys Locker Room,” under Section 66E of the IT Act of Cyber Bullying, which is yet to confirm on speech.
We hope to see Delhi Police taking strict action against these boys and that Instagram, according to their policies clearly being violated under promoting, and usage of hate speech, promotion of nudity, and promotion of rape threats; must take action.
