By Arré Bench May. 04, 2020
Leaked screenshots of an Instagram group “Bois Locker Room” reveal how 17 to 18-year-olds belonging to some of Delhi’s top schools made derogatory remarks about girls in their class. This shocking incident is just a reminder of how “rape culture” has been trivialised in the country.
A series of terrifying Instagram posts have revealed that a group of teenage boys, aged 17 to 18, from South Delhi in a group chat named “Bois Locker Room” regularly made derogatory remarks about women and body-shamed them. The members of the group allegedly belong to some of Delhi’s most reputed schools, claimed Ansha Sharma, who was among the first to post about the group on the photo-sharing app.
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A post shared by Ashna Sharma (@ashnaasharma) on
The outrage soon spread to Twitter where another girl claimed that the boys would often morph pictures of teenage girls, mostly their classmates.
A group of south delhi guys aged 17-18 types have this ig gc named “boy’s locker room” where they shit on, objectify and morph pictures of girls their age. 2 boys from my school are a part of it. MY FRIENDS AND I ARE FREAKING OUT THIS IS SO EWWW AND NOW MY MOM WANTS ME TO QUIT IG
— g (@gurrrii) May 3, 2020
As the screenshots were made public, girls started identifying the members of the group, claiming that they went to the same school as the boys. Many of them attended Birla Vidya Niketan, Amity Pushp Vihar, and other “affluent” South Delhi schools.
ONE OF THESE GUYS IS IN MY CLASS IN COLLEGE
— miz 💗 (@hellojisup) May 3, 2020
The screenshots sparked tremendous outrage on social media, as everyone got glimpses of chats where teenagers spoke casually about gang-rape.
A group of south delhi boys in the age group of 17-18 have ig gc named “bois locker room” where they were doing shitty things , objectify and morph pictures of girls of the same age group . These people are still not stoping and threatening people . Like really ? #boyslockerroom pic.twitter.com/QsRZZoKdBv
— Youth Against Rape ™ 🇮🇳 (@Rapesfreeindia) May 3, 2020
#boyslockerroom
this is screenshot of the snapchat conversation where one boy is threatening the other about gang raping his girlfriend. Now people are telling the others “this ain’t about you” if a boy can threaten any other girl so he can threaten others too!stop morphing girl pic.twitter.com/f9QfAPE1il— Avika dixit (@AvikaDixt) May 4, 2020
#Boyslockerroom was trending in India last night, with over 10,000 tweets in a matter of a few hours. “Why are “boys locker room” chats so normalised? How is it okay to comment cheaply on a girl’s physical appearance? This should not be normalised. An incident took place today which makes me feel unsafe as a woman,” wrote @anuvaa1 on Twitter. Several others came forward to point out other such horrific groups and platforms where men objectify women, and in some cases, even share nudes without their consent.
Okay so apparently there’s this reddit thread called r\srmbeauties where some men share pictures and NUDES of women studying in SRM College, Chennai without their consent. I’m so fucking done with their kind. When will they learn that it’s not okay to act like monsters? pic.twitter.com/Jc1RDGO8eC
— YES ALL MEN (@putaetu) May 3, 2020
Ansha Sharma later said that she received threats and her account was hacked.
I have never in my life been so furious. These shameless fucks are not even slightly guilty about what they’ve done. They’re going around and hacking our accounts now. NOTHING CAN OR WILL STOP US. #boyslockerroom
— ashnaasharma (@ashnaasharma) May 3, 2020
It is learned that once their group and handles were made public, many of the boys deactivated their accounts and closed down the group. For some time, even a new group was made called Boi Locker Room 2.0. Some threatened the women who stood up to their brazen misogyny and entitlement, by saying, “Bhai jitni bhi ladkiyon ne stories daali hai na, sabki nudes leak kar dete hai”.
I am just frightened at seeing what these guys in the boys locker room were talking about. After seeing this screenshot I don’t think they were 17-18 yr boys.I don’t understand how this young kids can threaten girls by saying sali k nudes leak krta hu.#boyslockerroom pic.twitter.com/uploVGO47u
— 𝙎𝙇𝙊𝙒 𝘾𝙃𝙀𝙀𝙏𝙃𝘼 🐆 (@slowcheetha) May 3, 2020
There were a few who apologised after the outrage, but there were also some defenders, as this girl pointed out.
If I hear even one person saying shit like ‘it’ll ruin the boys’ lives’ or ‘they’re just kids’ I’m gonna blow up in you face. You know who else is a kid? Literally all the girls whose photos were being shared. #boyslockerroom
— Himani (@paani_pi_ullu) May 3, 2020
Their acts are masked as “mistakes” and not viewed as a violation of someone else’s rights & privacy. #boyslockerroom (4/4) pic.twitter.com/dlygK9NW8C
— Tanya (@tanyadubeyy) May 3, 2020
However, the Delhi incident isn’t an isolated one. In December last year, an IB school in Mumbai suspended eight 13 to 14 year-old students for violent and abusive remarks in a WhatsApp group. The eight spoke of “gang bang” and “rape” and made fun of their other classmates, labelling them as lesbians and gays, Mumbai Mirror had reported. But before we blame it on a “generation”, let’s remember that we as a society have normalised demeaning women for long.
In this essay, Jackie Thakkar talks about the slut-shaming culture in schools and how “girls were recklessly labelled “loose” and “easy” for things as mundane as the length of their skirts or having too many guy friends. “In fact, the length of a girl’s skirt was often indirectly proportional to how much she was gossipped about. The teachers often fuelled the slut-shaming culture by picking these girls out between assembly lines and lectures,” he writes about his school experience from the early noughties.
But for far too long we have been pointing fingers at the women. Even after the Delhi incident, there was no dearth of defenders and those blaming the girls.
Hey, Any member of #boyslockeroom reading this DON’T WORRY. What you guys did can be considered foolish but not a crime. I faced this kind of SM trials and I assure you of full support, Just DM me. People will judge you, will call you names but this will pass.
— Ayush Vedant (@vedant4all) May 4, 2020
The problem then is far bigger and the solution needs to be equally revolutionary. When boys as young as 13 and 17 talk about rape, we need to realise what needs to change is our “boys will be boys” mentality and the way India raises its men.
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