You are definitely kidding me! Let us consider the odds.
Imagine:
1) A “pretty” girl wearing a pink Tee with a statement like “What you looking at?” printed on it standing on the city road paying the auto meter and then stepping into a posh shopping mall
2) A statement like this being placed right above her Oh!-So-Precious breast.
3) This statement now translated to a local language so that even auto drivers, bus drivers, watchmen, street mongrels and any other person capable of groping at the "pair " will not leave the text unread.
4) Not only the “pretty” girl but walking along with her are a couple of “pretty” friends of the girl wearing the recommended BNP Tees with the text translated into various local languages hence facilitating anyone who does not know a certain local language to try reading the text in some other language he knows so that he will get a guaranteed opportunity of gaping at the three pairs of you-know-what in an attempt to read that statement.
5) What the hell? even if you do not know any local language you can still gape at the pair wondering what is written hence ensuring an all round probability that the you-know-what does not go unspotted.
If the above scenario sounds lewd to you, this is exactly what the T-Shirt intentionally/un-intentionally conveys:
I can not wait till I spot a girl in my city wearing this Tee so that I can walk upto her and appreciate (if appreciating is not considered as harassing) her courage for wearing such a shameless Tee and walking around a public place.
Imagine walking into your office one morning wearing a Tee with “What you lookin’ at?” neatly printed on your breasts - You left wondering why everybody chose to wish your breasts “Good Morning” more often than you as you walked down the corridor. I will be the least bit surprised if a colleague were to walk upto you that day and say
“Hey girl! You have incredible breasts, Thanks for bringing it to my knowledge today”
(Undoubtedly, this event would come up as another BNP blog entry that would read “Harassment at office place” with your colleagues pic put up on BNP blog for the world to see and a note below it that will read “This man had the guts to walk upto me and say my breasts look pretty”!) Phew!
Even worse is having the text printed in a local language and to stand in front of an auto driver negotiating the meter charge while he ogles at whatever you chose to let him ogle at. Trust me, a perverted auto driver will take you anywhere around the city absolutely free for such services from your end.
I can not help but roll on the floor laughing when I imagine seeing this Tee put up at a BNP “What were you wearing when you got harassed?” campaign and this Tee being put up for display in a museum somewhere in Bangalore to prove that “You dint ask for it”!!!
Frankly, Who came up with this silly idea? Who were the ones who approved it? Don’t these people consider any possible consequences prior to coming up with an “innovative” idea to grab attention? Whom are they trying to intimidate? Will this technique really return the intended consequence?
To me, the text written on the flyer which says “Blank Noise T-Shirts. Buy 2 get 1 free! Hurry!” clearly sounds like an Ad campaign to sell BNP merchandise. Is BNP being made a brand? Is that the intention to make women blindly associate themselves with the BNP brand under the delusion that they are combating social evil simply by wearing meaningless BNP merchandise? What if there are women who actually buy this T shirt!? Even worse wear it and call themselves activists!
“Hey Girl! Now this BNP is doing this wonderful challenging-social-evils thingy. Now for you girl, to be identified to be among the in-crowd doing the cool activist thingy you need to buy this T-shirt and propagate our brand”
I am left speechless when I read:
“T-shirts for happy auto rikshaw rides :)”
I don’t even want to write about it.
I just humbly want to rephrase it to:
“T-shirts for happy* auto rikshaw drivers
* at your cost (bring in your friends too for even happier auto drivers, afterall buy 2 get 1 free)
I cant believe they actually got one of them to focus the camera exclusively on their breasts for such a dumb propaganda!
THE FINAL WORD: NO GIRL NEEDS TO BE WOOED INTO BUYING ANY OF THIS CONTRIVED MERCHANDISE, BEYOND WHAT SHE ALREADY CHOOSES TO WEAR IN ORDER TO BE HARASSED AT. SUCH MERCHANDISE IS COMPLETELY UNNECESSARY TO COMBAT SEXUAL HARASSMENT.
2 comments:
Your blog looks interesting. I have bookmarked it. I might make a few comments here when I get more time.
Dude, I am the same anonymous guy (yes, a guy) who posted earlier. I will call myself as "A Male Virgin" because I am really feeling the pinch of sexual deprivation and love starvation these days. Nevertheless, my libido is completely "leashed unto my reigns" - to use the language of your blog. That's enough for an introduction to an insignificant individual of another insignificant individual.
I feel that you should also write more about your sex life or love life in this blog so that (i) if it is good, you will not be accused of being a ranting and rambling loser (ii) if it is not good, you will be accused of being a ranting and rambling loser. Don't be shy. You can always remain anonymous. If you are a loser, then as a co-loser I can tell you that shamelessness is our only friend. Sorry I have digressed too much. See I have become a rambling loser already. So I will come back to the point here.
When I first saw the T-Shirts on Blank Noise Project (BNP), I thought that there are two possibilities - (i) Either the T-Shirts really work positively and since I am not able to see how they work, I must be a moron (ii) The T-Shirts either don't work, or if they do, they might only add to the pleasures of our auto-wallah and co. Your comment on the T-shirts has reassured me that either (i) I am not a moron or (ii) We both are morons. But if neither of us is a moron, then what would happen to the girls who actually wear these T-shirts? They would only become more prone to eve-teasing as you rightly observed. Which begs the question - Is it too difficult for the girls at BNP to understand this simple fact? Honestly, how many of our auto-wallahs are "respected" eve-teasers? Aren't girls going to suffer more because of this silliness? It is such questions which make me wish that I were a moron (remember the different possibilities?). But something in me tells that I am not. And neither are you (at least going by what you have written here).
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