#BoysLockerRoom: Delhi teens casually talk about raping girls; shock Twitter
What's the story
An Instagram group chat titled "Bois Locker Room" has kicked up a storm on social media after it was revealed that its participants, mostly boys as young as 16 and 17, discuss raping underage girls and objectify them in their conversations. Some parts of their horrendous chats were leaked and it has started a conversation about how deeply imbibed rape culture actually is.
What happened
Boys objectified minor girls, spoke about raping them too
The row started late last night when a couple of social media users exposed the vile way in which these Delhi boys, seemingly students of posh schools, spoke about girls. They circulated pictures of minor girls, without their consent, objectified them, and also reportedly spoke about raping them. After the chats got leaked, some whistleblowers said an attempt was made to hack their accounts.
Conversations
The conversations show they treated girls as merely objects
An Instagram user shared screenshots of the conversation where the boys spoke about circulating nudes of girls. In one of the conversations, they rated girls on how they look. Some of the girls who became victims of this perverse behavior are only 14 years old. None of them were aware their pictures were being circulated on the group.
Threat
Subsequently, the boys threatened to leak inappropriate pictures
Not expecting that their conversations would get leaked and snowball into one of the top Twitter trends, the participants thought of ill ways to get back at the girls. One of them suggested leaking nudes of the girls who spoke against them and another one concurred. They abused the whistleblowers and said something to the tune of "these feminists should be taught a lesson".
Apology
A member of the group apologized
After the row erupted, a member of the group apologized saying he understood the gravity of the situation. He also called it an "error of judgment" and went ahead to defend the non-active members of the group. The apology, however, didn't cut ice with anyone on social media who demanded strict action against all participants and urged their respective schools to take cognizance too.
Reactions
The chats horrified Indian Twitter, many slammed the behavior
A number of angry reactions on the entire incident made #BoysLockerRoom a top trend on Twitter today. Journalist Anusha Ravi Sood wrote, "Teen boys talking of gangraping their peers as a joke, considering objectifying & morphing or sharing photos of girls without their consent as acceptable is terrifying. (sic)" There were others who said the boys' parents should be alerted.
Twitter Post
They feel they can easily get away: Twitter user
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
Twitter Post
You need to hold your "bros" responsible, commented another
these are not mistakes, they’re only “sorry” because they got caught. stop normalising rape culture, it’s not that “these are just kids their lives will be ruined.” u know who else are kids? the ppl being objectified, given threats the ones whose pictures are being morphed
— apurva (@apurvagxpta) May 4, 2020
Twitter Post
"Schools need to address the elephant in the room"
Every time the subject of sex sexuality education is raised, it comes under the scanner of "what about Indian culture" whataboutery. Indian culture isn't sexual violence and disrespect of women. So unless schools compulsorily address what's happening, nothing is going to change
— #MeTooIndia (@IndiaMeToo) May 4, 2020
Do you know?
Reportedly, a few of them have been booked
Subsequently, Shubham Singh, a cyber cell investigator who helps the government, managed to track down some of the participants of the group. News18 said they have been booked under Section 66A of the IT Act for cyberbullying.