‘Abusive right-wing trolls’ make Internet an unsafe place for women, they say. An abusive troll with questionable credentials, Swati Chaturvedi, has written a full-fledged book naming everyone from the non-left as ‘BJP troll army’ who are nameless, faceless people who enjoy spending their time on the Internet abusing women. What these people do not write is that women are on the receiving end of abuse across the spectrum.
Following the gruesome rape and murder case in Hyderabad, where a 27-year-old doctor was gang-raped and then killed and had her body set on fire by the perpetrators, a filmmaker from Hyderabad, Daniel Shravan took to Facebook to suggest Indian government should legalise rape and women should carry condom and rather enjoy rape so that they are not murdered later. The bizarre suggestion which reduced women to sex objects made women angry. And I speak for women because I am one. This does not mean men do not feel angered by this. Please do not make this about political correctness.
This horrifying suggestion reminded us about the movie Padmaavat where actor Swara Bhaskar had written how watching a movie where Rajput women chose self-immolation over sex slavery and forceful religious conversion by Alauddin Khilji and his army had ‘reduced herself to a vagina’. OpIndia Editor Nupur J Sharma shared an article I had written in response to Swara’s rant where I had used her comparison and asked her to rise above her vagina. I had talked about Swara’s hypocrisy on how her own movie Raanjhanaa glorified stalking on celluloid and which she even justified as creative freedom. I wrote how if only in the 13th century, women had known that in the 21st century, their ‘cinematic depiction’ would lead to the fifth wave of feminism where open letters would try to imply how the fact that they would rather die than spend life as sex slave is a bigger ‘crime’ than beastly Islamic invaders who destroyed civilizations and murdered people along the way.
This, of course, triggered quite a few people. One anonymous troll decided to ask Nupur and I, ‘what was wrong with ours? Was ours leaking?’ He meant whether our vaginas were leaking. A very random sexually coloured remark sent to two women by a nameless, faceless troll, just because the Internet allows him.
What’s wrong with yrs? Is it leaking a lot.
— Simpleton (@en_haja) December 5, 2019
He was told by few men to generally be little respectful to women. That his behaviour is not polite and acceptable in a functional society. He then also added how he respects women.
Of course we respect women. Where do women get raped everyday. Where is even a rape survivor gets thrashed. Where does a raped woman get burnt. Stop harassing.
— Simpleton (@en_haja) December 5, 2019
When Nupur confronted him with his imaginary ‘respect’, he told us that because we brought ‘vagina’ issue in the open, he had to ‘discipline us’.
Well u were the one who had to bring the vagina issue in the open. So had to discipline u. That’s all.
— Simpleton (@en_haja) December 5, 2019
Who is he to ‘discipline’ women on the Internet? He has an answer for that.
If u step out of line anyone can do it.
— Simpleton (@en_haja) December 5, 2019
Nupur and I were ‘out of line’ and hence he felt the need to ‘discipline’ us. Nupur refused to write on this. She felt her ego would not let her play the victim. I said it is not about being a victim. It is about letting the world know we get abused too. That we too get threats, day in and day out.
A simple look at his profile showed how he glorified and hailed Tipu Sultan who was responsible for the murder of thousands of Hindus.
This is Tippu Sultan for the bigots. https://t.co/qYj238mcuO
— Simpleton (@en_haja) November 21, 2019
He has all the qualities of an Indian ‘liberal’. He sees the soft side of Pakistan.
So this is extremist Pakistan, eh!!! https://t.co/UneDOiGemq
— Simpleton (@en_haja) November 10, 2019
Does not believe Hindus are persecuted in Pakistan.
They say Hindus r persecuted in Pakistan! https://t.co/1H3DqFpeMb
— Simpleton (@en_haja) October 9, 2019
Refers to Kashmir as ‘India occupied Kashmir’.
Indian occupied Kashmir has been stripped of its special status. A UN resolution states Kashmiris must participate in a referendum to determine their future. But India has unilaterally annexed it. Mr Trump must mediate NOW and find a just lasting solution to the mess British left
— Simpleton (@en_haja) August 5, 2019
And in all possibility believes in Islam is the religion of peace.
Islam holds all human beings as equal. So people who are oppressed and insulted in the societies they live in r welcome and.urged to become Muslim to live with dignity.
— Simpleton (@en_haja) August 7, 2019
So why does he, a textbook ‘liberal’ want to ‘discipline’ women? Women, who have views, different from his? Why is ‘vagina’ a bad word that immediately sends off signals to him that he must take the responsibility of ‘disciplining’ us? And what exactly does ‘discipline’ mean? Is he the Taliban? Since he can’t physically use lashes on us, is he going to throw sexist remark at us?
And is he really the only one? There are thousands of abuses we get a day in and day out. On our physical appearance to comments on our private parts to comments on our personal lives.
So when mainstream publications write about abuses women have to face on the social media, why are the abusers grouped as ‘right-wing trolls’? Are non-left women, not women enough? Aren’t abuses we are subjected to abuses enough? Or is it that because we do not agree with them on political ideology, we ‘deserve’ the hate we get otherwise we won’t be ‘disciplined’?
When we complain of abuses thrown at us, we are mocked. So women on the non-left spectrum of the political ideology, the fight against misogyny is even harder. Those on the Left, who identify themselves as feminists most of the time, will choose their political ideology over admitting that women on the non-left are being wronged.
So here we are. Fighting a new battle every day. Slaying it, quite like a boss, almost every single day.
