Slut it out

A woman in Pakistan was paraded naked because her son committed rape. Afghanistan, Pakistan and India are in the top five countries deemed most dangerous for women, according to a recent poll of gender experts. Speaking of India, it is a country where women are worshipped as deities and killed in foetal stage.
On the other side of the spectrum, we have women across the world organising “slut walks”, dressing up provocatively after a Toronto police officer suggested that in order not to be victimised, “women should avoid dressing like sluts”.
The term slut has a negative connotation, and is obviously directed towards the woman. It means a loose woman, a prostitute, a dirty, unkempt woman, or a woman who performs menial work. And invariably, it is the woman who is blamed for a man’s lust. Violence and rape are on the rise because women are dressed provocatively, rather than “decently”.
Now, what is decent dressing? How are women supposed to dress up so as not to “provoke” the male folk into pawing them? How much must a woman cover herself so as not to let her modesty be outraged? Is a hint of cleavage or a tight-fitting T-shirt “allowed”? I am curious.
Isn’t it totally bizarre to pin the responsibility on the woman for being leered at, or worse, for being raped? Instead of asking women to cover themselves properly to avoid the dubious male gaze, why can’t we turn the table for once and ask the males to desist from sexual violence?
Many schools across the country have a salwar-kameez dress code for ‘’grown-up” girls, and when they foray into college, that code is extended. Why not a code of conduct for the boys for a change? Why can’t boys be groomed as they become men to stop looking at women as sex objects? Apart from splashing crime and rape across the media and organising seminars on sexual violence, or taking out marches to protect the “right to dress”, can we just spare a thought to edify junior and senior adams not to see women purely as eves waiting for a lay?
But there is a flip side to this argument. Women of the urban genre seem so hypnotised by a modern “trend”. They have a rather skewed idea of liberation. For them, liberation seems to be daring to bare. Digging a little more would probably give them a deeper sense of what liberation is. But they have buried that to explore this new-found freedom of expression, completely deflecting them from an independent mind set. I don’t think feminism is burning bras to “free” oneself. It would only “disfigure” our ideas. Both men and women have certain anatomical assets and liabilities, and it is best to bury the unnecessary attention it gets.