Row over 'rape girls for wearing short dresses' video rages on social media

Who: A group of women in Gurugram decided to go out for a bite. An older woman was also present at the same restaurant. Appalled by the sartorial choices of one of the younger women, she allegedly told the group that “such clothing” is what leads women to get raped. According to the “accused” young woman, Shivani Gupta, the older woman also told a group of men in the restaurant to rape the young women. Later identified as Soma Chakrabarty, the middle-aged woman was accosted by Gupta and her friends who repeatedly asked her to apologise for her remarks.

Gupta and her friends were also joined by other unidentified men and women, who all told Chakrabarty how she was contributing to India’s infamous rape culture. Among them was a woman who said that she would not have a problem if her own daughter were to walk down a street wearing a swimsuit. Others spoke about how the length of a woman’s skirt had nothing to do with whether or not she will be harassed. Between cheers and vociferous support, Chakrabarty was the lone figure standing her ground, even warning the women’s parents that their daughters were not safe wearing less than voluminous clothes.

How: All this became public when Gupta decided to record her confrontation with Chakrabarty. The original provocation for this and Chakrabarty’s alleged conduct at the restaurant is not a part of the nearly 10-minute-long video. Gupta then posted this video on Instagram’s IGTV, a functionality within the social media platform for longer videos. It swiftly went viral. This was in line with what Gupta can be heard telling the older woman in the video — that she would make this episode viral if Chakrabarty did not apologise.

From a couple of hundred views, Gupta’s video reached nearly a million hits, before it was taken down by Instagram. Gupta also posted a screenshot of Chakrabarty’s Facebook profile, where the latter wrote, “Hi friends, do you support to wear shortest dress like mini for the girls or women… That is their wish of course.” Once her identity was made public, Chakrabarty temporarily deactivated her Facebook account.

Several social media influencers came out in support of Gupta and her friends, lauding their courageous takedown of “Auntyji’s” retrograde views. Most of Gupta’s posts also came with #auntyjiapologise, which was picked up by those tweeting and posting about the incident.

What: While there was unquestionable courage in the fact that Gupta confronted her tormentor, the exchange also revealed curiously misogynistic views while upholding more obvious feminist values. For instance, branding Chakrabarty “Aunty” is extremely problematic given its connotations — of a stout, less-than-sexually-attractive, middle-aged woman. A day after the incident, Twitter users like @asmitaghosh18 have pointed out how the comments the women made in the video about Chakrabarty — that she probably doesn’t wear such dresses because she doesn’t have the body for it — are themselves indicative of the young women’s patriarchal conditioning.

When class, caste, age and community intersect, feminism can begin to look much more labyrinthine than merely confronting one’s oppressor. That is not to diminish Gupta’s contribution to the conversation around India’s rape culture. She also braved unspeakable cyberbullying while doing this. But Chakrabarty, too, was harassed online, especially after Gupta shared a photograph of the older woman wearing a knee-length dress. Young women, given the access they have to conversations around body shaming, are equipped to take down patriarchy in a more nuanced manner. But what took place in Gurugram may have lessons for people at either ends of the spectrum.