Last week when I took the metro home after work, I sat next to three rich teenage boys talking animatedly about the party they attended the previous night. They were particularly impressed by the food and the quality of music, but were ‘put off’ by a girl’s sl**ty behaviour. One of them said, “I so fu***ng wanted to slap her” and the other two agreed.
I stepped into a coffee shop and precariously adjusted myself on a seat next to a table occupied by four woking professionals, including a woman. One of them didn’t approve of his colleague’s sense of humour and casually called her “the ugliest being” he had ever seen.
I don’t necessarily keep an ear out for the sexism that is rampantly practiced in our society; my family, friends, and extended family friends have practiced this toxicity enough for me to remember these like the back of my hand.
Unfortunately, the most common ones are practiced at home and are so engrained in our psychology that we don’t react when they are uttered.
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