“Look at her bro; she’s a complete ‘slut’ walking around with him at 2 AM.”

How disgusting must it be to hear these abusive remarks from a passerby?

Wait for a second!

He didn’t say anything wrong. That girl deserves to be abused if she stays outside, with a male, at 2 AM in the night.

However, isn’t that “boy” also a male-slut?

No, boys can easily wander late in nights. This restriction is meant for girls only.

Hi, welcome to the patriarchal society – where smoking and roaming late outside are the signs of “stud personality” and “slutty character”. 

If you ever ask someone why does he or she question a girl’s character based on the needles of a clock, you are likely to hear – “streets are not safe for girls late at night”.

While one can argue city surroundings are not secured for females at night, they are not safe in the daytime either. In many incidents, a rapist kidnaps a girl in broad sunlight from a busy street and sexually assaults her.

Leave alone the city surroundings; sometimes, even the boundaries of a house can’t protect a female’s dignity. People, closely related to victims, commit 90 percent of total rapes in India.

The whole point behind this argument is to detag the “unsafe” status for not allowing girls to stroll down after 8 PM. Girls are unsafe in afternoons also, the situation is equally threatening inside the homes too.

Rapes don’t happen because of girls’ ‘bad’ timings; they happen because of boys’ wrong mindsets.

However, don’t let it stop the females from feeling the calmness and quietness by walking around in the deserted streets in short, comfortable night suits. 

Girls, who roam around late in the night, are not “sluts”. They are living their life, the way they want to. You, me or no one else has a right to restrict them or question their character.

Does smoking discriminate a boy and a girl?

Smoking is harmful and causes cancer – True enough!

Every puff brings a smile on the face of Yamraj (God of Death) – Rightly said!

However, smoking injures only females’ health? – Seriously, a big NO. Smoking is equally dangerous for boys and girls.

Hence, next time remember that you don’t ask a female to quit smoking because either it is injurious only to females’ health or it shows that she doesn’t belong to “good family”. Instead, advise her to leave it because smoking is detrimental for every individual and calls for severe problems.

Even after your advice, if she continues doing it, you don’t have a right to judge her character or call her abusively.

Road Ahead

To eliminate these ‘norms’ from our progressive society, we will have to raise our voices louder and clearer.

“The change starts from within.”

Next time, when you see someone calling a girl “slut” just because she is wandering around late at night or smoking a cigarette, walk upto him and tell, “she isn’t a slut…she is a happy, peace-loving individual enjoying her leisure time.”