Yours Sincerely

Here's the thing. I've seen men, and women, who claim to understand , pretend to be empathetic, profess alliance that they are all on the same side  of the fight against sexual assaults, and suddenly come up with shockingly misogynistic remarks, and out of the blue, engage in rape apology. So for their benefit: this is what our  side should be , so that  should be clear now: A) I agree that rape is really, really wrong, but .... . Wait!! Stop RIGHT there. Rape is wrong. Period. There is no need to qualify that statement. There is no need to provide exceptions to that statement. If what you are stating means anything different from this, you are not an ally in our fight, and you are not on the right side. B) I am not talking about the brutal rapes like the Delhi one, but for 'some' rape cases, OR  under 'certain' situations....  followed by victim-blaming. Again, you need to stop!! There are no different kinds of rape to grade their depravity a...

How would I have reacted ? This was a thought which ran through some of my colleagues' minds. Apparently, there was a conversation about rape and who is responsible for it when I wasn't around at my work place. Someone  (new kid on the floor) made some comments about how women are responsible for sexual crimes against themselves. This was not the first time when one (or more) of my colleagues made out-rightly sexist statements in our clean room, but according to some of my team mates, this was, err, different. Let me explain. As my feminist views have caused some heated debates between me and my colleagues, it was once a routine practice for some of my team mates to seek entertainment by provoking me into those discussions. After I started turning a complete deaf ear to them as a means of protest, this phenomenon has considerably subsided. Anyway, due to reasons which are beyond my comprehension, my colleagues started a conversation around rape and women when I wasn't arou...