JUDGEMENT @ A GLASS OF WINE

You have inherited the XX chromosome ! You are a woman.
Step aside for a special check !
It will involve frisking the mind , forcefully staring at your behavioural patterns , digging deep into your thought process,nailing  in terms of percentage your audacity to live life on your terms , mapping why you like what you are not allowed to , then finally flashing it as the lead news in Big National dailies .In this country we prefer to keep two sets of morals , one for men and one for women and any women with the morals of a man is definitely up for scrutiny !
Really ? Alcohol doesn’t go down well with women, can surpass all national news and beat them to the prized position of the  first news in a leading national Daily ? There is news and there is sensationalisation of news but beyond that, there is now
a news category to propagate spicy stereotypes . To put it point blank , such prime postion given to a research based on gender to assert that women and alcohol make an unhealthy mixture , smacks of gender bias .Prioritising this piece of news is just an extension of the typical mindset which rushes to judge a woman at every given chance .

This newspaper must have been shoved up the nose of  many a a women with lengthy lectures on see I always told you this . For every man or father who 'disaproves' of a woman drinking alcohol , this prioritisation of news must be the final weapon .  Proudly , he would force his wisdom - "a woman's body can't take alcohol !"
I question the judgement to prioritise this news . The creation of a spicy gender biased research analysis to propagate stereotypes in a country like India . It forces one to question beyond intention , the very mindset that promotes such picking of news. Will there ever be a bias-level check for people who are suppose to be the pinnacle of informed awareness. Will they own upto the fact that they are guided by the same prejudices that judge a woman after she is eve teased , molested, raped or gang raped . The theories that float are a) She asked for it by wearing short clothes b) She was drunk , implying again that she had asked for it . Yes people in this country have the audacity to infer that it is ok to rape a woman if she wears small clothes and even more if she has consumed alcohol and specially so if she wanders out at night .
Why else would the headline scream on the compatibility of women and alcohol . Why would it be a verdict on her physical anatomy not suited for alcohol consumption . Tailor made for gender judging consumers ?
The very point of reference for deciding issues , their prioritisation, language to be used is slave to a very lopsided understanding of gender issues and biases . Even without any concrete intention we squeeze information into popular gender segments .
How will this mindset change ?
This could help . To just broaden the horizon a little . To Jerk even the self assuming wisest out of their narrow mindset . I would like to put forth the example of the nomadic Tuareg tribe of the Sahara desert which seems much progressive in comparision !
Take this ! Hope to see you blush at this . Their women are allowed to have multiple sexual partners outside of marriage . Yes, you heard it right .
In this Islamic tribe, women embrace sexual freedom. Would sound alien for most in India .
Listen to this .
Before a woman marries, she is free to take as many lovers as she wants.
'The tribe turns a blind eye,' explains Henrietta Butler, a photographer who has studied the tribe . 'The young girls have the same great freedoms as the boys' , he adds. Women in this tribe lose none of their power once they marry either.
Her tent is the power centre . So revered are women by their son in laws that the young men wouldn't dare to eat in the same room .
Many marriages end in divorce among the Tuareg. And when it happens, it is the wife who keeps the property ,both the animals and the tent. And it is she who normally decides that she’s had enough.
And there is no shame in divorce. Families will often throw their daughters a divorce party, to let other men know they are available once more.
The final eye opener is that it is is the men who cover their faces and not the women . Reason ? They say , their women are beautiful !
Young boys start covering their face at the age of six and later veil themselves as they grow into men .
I am not declaring any ideal situation . I am just requesting a re look at reference points for prioritisation , analysis and conclusion of gender issues . For some reasons, alcohol doesn't metabolize as quickly for women as it does for men ( part of the research flashed as lead news ) , is a piece of information that could well be a little piece in some lifestyle page .
Jane Austen in Persuasion wrote " I hate to hear you talk about all ladies as if they were fine ladies instead of rational creatures . None of us want to be in calm waters all our lives ."

TWITTER LYNCHING

‘You should be treated worse than Nirbhaya‘,wrote a troll on her timeline when a colleague tweeted on a Ministers fake degree.
 ‘Send your mother, what is her current rate for a night ?’,stared from his timeline when a friend tweeted on Muzaffarnagar riots .
 ‘She was sexually abused as a child so is against selfie with father’,is what she was told when Shruti Seth tweeted on #SelfieWithDaughter .
Trolls screeched ‘ I will make you sit on a broken wine bottle ’when a  Turkish journalist reported on protests at Istanbul’s Gezi Park.

Ugly, Abusive, Violent and Sexual . The Twitter experience is almost like public lynching for many .Within minutes, Rape threats to ugly abuses compete with your refresh button on Twitter . Cowards hiding in the dark spaces of the virtual world unleash their wrath on you , all because you have dared to dissent . You tediously crisp and chop to say what you have to in 144 characters and trolls swear they will make you curse the moment you decided to tweet  . The sleeping cell for crouching trolls rises to  inflict insult .

The abusive virtual world has become a reality. In India their obsession with mother, sister and the brothel make them so predictably ugly . They insult you and then dare you . They are desperate for reaction .They bait. Then wait . They then press the accelerator. They increase the vulgarity quotient .Perverse brains work overtime, dig from the warehouse of abuses to create new variations of old boring ones and whoa you are showered with further venom.  Degree varies. In a country where the Defence Minister’s contribution to social media is his coinage of ‘presstitute’, we can understand how twitter is more and more becoming a vent for people who are compulsive abusers but just lacked a medium to do so openly. They hide behind anonymity and strike from the dark. Their twitter handles lack real name and identity but their hatred is real, laced with racial slurs/comments on your physical appearance .They are unguided missiles.  They sure have made walking the virtual clouds a risky ride .



This is a worldwide phenomenon . A Turkish journalist filed reports on the protests and a fierce attack followed on Twitter . ‘ I received hundreds of tweets using obscene language , threatening to kill me , threatening to rape me . I am frightened for my physical safety when I am out on the streets ,"she says .
Back home from Shahrukh Khan to Salman Khan, such virtual mudslinging has actually forced them to take a sabbatical from twitter . Celebs come here to connect with their fans in a personal way,but it ends at facing wrath from those who dislike your work. SRK decided to quit twitter and his last tweet read" Sad,i read so much judgements, jingoism, religious intolerance on the net & i use to think,this platform wl change narrowmindedness,but no!(sic)" . He came back though when he wanted to reconnect with fans before the release of Ra one .Salman took a similar sabbatical from twitter with this tweet  “Don't want them to fight or turn nasty, ugly, abusive. Twitter shld also block abusive language, how difficult is that .”
Many journalists in India have faced relentless harassment for just doing their job . Coward minds hit where it hurts the most. Hindi abuses don't stick as much as the 'sold out ' tag . Gen VK Singh said 'presstitute' and trolls coined ' preshya' for hindi. Their mental horizon stands revealed .
 It affects. No denial. It reaches & it disturbs . The state of politics in this country has also made it vicious . Actor Shruti Seth wrote Her criticism of Prime Minister Modi’s #SelfieWithDaughter was met with death threats, racial slurs, derogatory remarks at her being a woman and a lot more. She criticized the campaign and called Modi ‘selfie obsessed PM’ and the floodgates of hell opened on twitter. 48 hours of ugly backlash from twitterati followed.
The mix of sexism and the misogynist attitude was as dark as it could get. She then wrote an open letter to the trolls .  She said it was like stripping her of all her dignity as a woman. Yes, if you are a woman celeb , you will be tossed around on forkpoint for being sexually abused/ sex starved/ sex worker with the most ugly creative permutations and combinations .

Does being a woman make the twitter experience even more venomous for a celeb?

Well,according to an analysis (quoted by Daily Mail)of more than 2million messages sent to celebrities, politicians and journalists - Men get more than twice as much abuse as women on Twitter, but they're also the ones behind most of the trolling. One message in every 20 sent to prominent males was abusive compared to one in 70 for females.
The study also revealed  Female journalists and male politicians are more likely to bear the brunt of bullying.


Now that Prime minister Modi has also said that politeness should be the hallmark of the twitter sena in a recent meeting with them , do I expect the onslaught to change . Well , frankly no .And  this one is to all the trolls from my side .You have actually sabotaged your own net identity.  You function with wired handle names like @FindingKhaini or @Desibakwaas or @hallagullaboy , just so that you can abuse others freely . You are actually abusing your own identity. Big companies now do a thorough check up of your web identity from Facebook to Twitter before hiring you .People are being rejected because of shady net activity.
Also do remember you can harass only till someone decides to complain . Beware . Section 67/67A of the IT Act and Sec 509  of the Indian Penal Code can put you behind bars for upto 3 years . Man whose tweet led to emergency landing of Jet Airways flight has been traced to Jaipur. You are traceable, dear trolls !
As for those at the receiving end of troll wrath , the abuse is designed to make you leave public places in the virtual world .The reaction to it should be ignore , defy , stay online and stay visible to shame the trolls into oblivion   .