By Sruthi Sadhasivam (MY Convictions )
Our history has time and again proved how it’s a bane to be born a woman. The life of a woman in a patriarchal society is like a tottering cat living in a dog’s kennel. The E-life of a woman is worse than being caught in a rat race because she has to confront a great deal of unknown people in the virtual world. Now this doesn’t mean men are let off the hook from getting trolled. Although social media is harsh on men too, people do not go to the extent of spouting off any vile sexist remarks or for that matter rape threats for speaking out their mind. So, they are far better off than a woman. Why should women be trolled in such a debauched manner? Given that women are equal to men, and have the equal right to speak up, the disproportionate online trolling they face needs to be questioned.
Gender-based violence be it online or offline does affect women irrespective of their financial or socio-economic status. We generally assume that people in powerful positions are more protected against online hate. But this is not true in the case of women even if they are well-off or influential. Be it the time of elections or post-elections, online abuses and hate talks against them are always an unwanted bonus that strangle female politicians and lawmakers even after they die.
When the former external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj, helped an interfaith couple from Uttar Pradesh get their passports, people openly asked her husband to beat her up. She herself has been quoted as saying that absolutely nobody who has a strong political or social viewpoint that is not in line with a certain ideology can expect any immunity.
Recently, in a video, Agrima Joshua, a comedian joked about speculation over the state government’s intention to construct an effigy of Chhatrapati Shivaji in the Arabian Sea. The jokes were considered to be of denigrating nature which enraged the Maratha King’s adherents. As a result, social media witnessed collective emotional outburst and Shiv Sena and Maharashtra Home Minister Ani Deshmukh even called for Agrima’s arrest. In a chain of events, Shubham Mishra who has a great number of fan followers, in his video threatened to even rape her. Inspite of her apologizing for her jokes, threats like this continued to pop up in social media.
Even if one’s religious sentiments are hurt, is it really justified on their part to shoot out rape threats to a woman? Aren’t there any legal means to punish her? How come these steamrollers tend to get away by spatting out whatever unpleasant guff they want? Have we run out of laws to punish the perpetrators? Or have we accepted these as the new-normal and moved on?
On one hand, women themselves stand as villains to other women while on the other hand, we have men roasting them according to their whims and fancies. No leaf is left unturned while attacking them. They go to the extent of slandering them by even borrowing evil characters from mythology, pointing out to their race, body type and what not.
Threats are so perverted and dreadful that it begs to embark on the impending question: how long is it just a threat, and would we disregard it if it were made in the tangible world as opposed to the digital world?
Women’s sexuality is a matter of honour in the eyes of the society and men are exceedingly aware that sexual abuse will always be the biggest whetted dagger to hurt womankind. In addition, a woman is considered physically weak compared to a man so it is taken for granted that a woman will simply endure all forms of torture meted out to her.
Nevertheless, we do have daring women like Padma Priya who identifies herself as Chennai Thamizhachi and had spoken about the EIA draft 2020. She raised plenty of questions against the government regarding the draft through a video. When her video went viral she had to face innumerable personal attacks and political pressure due to which she was forced to take down the video. She gave a fitting reply to the spectators who had completely lambasted her by questioning her credibility, education, personal life, political affiliation and so on. Should one be a P.H.D holder to voice out their opinions? If one talks about any political issue why is it that they are claimed to have been in association with a political party? Shouldn’t awareness be the only eligibility criteria for whoever wishes to express themselves? What is the relevance of democracy if only literate and authoritative individuals are given the privilege to talk? Additionally, why should a woman’s personal affairs be brought in when she speaks out in public? How has it anything to do with what she had said ?
Unfortunately, not all women are as resilient and undaunting as Padma Priya is. A great many women have reduced their presence online as a result of abuse and harassment. It also affects the decisions that they make outside the digital sphere.
Although we have section 66E of the IT act, section 354A, 354D,499 and 509 from the IPC, there has been a tremendous increase in online trolling. It’s highly evident that India lacks dedicated laws against cyberbullying.
Most importantly, not all things that woman say are true, for instance, the BJP MP Maneka Gandhi’s misguided tweet on animals being killed in Mallapuram and that it is a muslim dominated district. While social media was pouring out with empathy on the death of the elephant in Kerala, it selectively muted itself when Safoora Zargar, a pregnant Jamia student was shoved in an over-crowded prison. Remember, we really don’t have to tolerate or accept things just because it was proclaimed by a woman or a person of power. Be it a man or woman, both share the responsibility of conveying the truth to the masses. If they happen to go back on their duty we can downright find faults with what they say.
I feel rattled to ask why is character assasination the only means to chastise women in the public sphere? We all know the way Rana Ayyub, the bold journalist who wrote the book ‘Gujarat Files’ exposing Mr. Narendra Modi or Swara Bhaskar, the outspoken actor face online threats regularly from the saffron brigade.
As readers, listeners, viewers and commentators we have the absolute liberty to express our thoughts on what happened. We have all the right to criticise others if they are wrong but it cannot be done with disrespect and an intent to abash them.
If our intention is to express our views, they have to be based on rationality, logic and civilised language. Rather than targeting an individual’s claims we target the individual itself. That’s where we go wrong. Let’s create a space for discussion rather than castigation. As civilized beings let’s learn to express ourselves in a reasonable and an appropriate manner. I certainly think this would help create a safe E-haven for women.
– Author is an undergraduate student majoring in political science and a digital activist chiefly interested in women and politics. She can be reached at @iamcalledsruthi (Instagram) or @Sruthi97916263 (Twitter)
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