A few weeks ago a group of what I would call 'Men's rights activists,' in India walked into a bar and physically assaulted all the women patrons that they believed were drinking freely and exhibiting obscene behavior. Because apparently, public beatings of women by hordes of men is polite and decent behavior. Let us resist the urge to suggest that given the cultural climate of India these women shouldn't have been in a bar. Fuck that. They are revolutionaries.
Those outraged by the bar attacks have started a facebook group called, "Consortium of Pub-going, Loose and Forward Women." For Valentine's Day, they are sending Pramod Mutalik, the head of conservative anti-woman group responsible for the attack, Ram Senaall, up to 500 pairs of pink panties. They are also urging everyone to go a local pub and have a drink on Valentine's Day.
For more info on the Pink Chaddi campaign check here and Ultra Violet has more.
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'Men's rights activists'? I think loosely categorizing all men, or even all Indian men, or even all conservative Hindu Indian men into a group that believes it is their right to beat women for going for a drink is pushing it. My grandfather is conservative and Hindu and Indian and I doubt that he would condone such action.
Otherwise - yay pink chaddis! I'm gonna buy a pair just for the occasion!
As a men's rights activist, I can tell you most MRAs WANT women to freely associate (rather than sex segregate). Repeat... FREELY associate.
Getting the Sahib point of view "news" (BBC) to get at troubling events is yet another shining example of the Eurocentric laziness I find often in the offerings of this blogger. The version here writes of "Men's rights activists" as if the writer were referring to a mainstream organization and frequenters of pubs "revolutionaries" as if choosing to have fun were an astoundingly unusual event in India.
If the writer had bothered to read the Times of India, for example, she would have read the group of attackers described in the very first sentence of one story as "A fanatical right-wing group notorious for creating communal tensions and indulging in moral policing."
Get that? Fanatical, right-wing, notorious, indulgent. Get it? It's a bunch of whack-jobs unrepresentative of anyone but themselves.
All that was on the Internet, too. But, of course, that would required two minutes of research in order to show respect to an Asian nation. Too much to ask, I know.
Calling them men's rights activists was my way of calling them right wing nuts. Men's rights activists are wack-jobs in the states. I still think these women are revolutionaries. Are you telling me it is easy and doesn't turn heads for women to go to bars in India? Of course people have fun in India...but depending on where you are affects how you have access to fun. Perhaps, middle class women have one experience, while others have a different. And it is enough of an issue for many many women to organize around it.
But the point is apt, women are harassed and at risk of violence in bars in the US as well. I would never deny that, I should have included that.
Affiliating these thugs with men's rights activists is roughly equivalent to affiliating LGBT activists with NAMBLA. It is not only inaccurate, it's a cheap rhetorical shot, and it does a disservice to your argument.
For that matter, doesn't "thug" have it's etymology in the Indian "Thugee" and thus calling them that may not be the best choice of words to use regarding this topic either?
http://www.sepiamutiny.com/sepia/archives/000322.html
Either way, I shall drink to the women of India.
Men's rights activists are both left and right wing, pro and antifeminist - as far as I am aware, there is no violent wing of 'the men's movement' (unlike some separatist feminists of 'the women's movement') so for you to describe these men as men's rights activists is simply ignorant. This message may well get deleted, because I'm speaking the truth, and so your ignorance is by design, of Jessica et al.
I second that, for reals. The Hindustan Times ran a piece about it. UltraViolet (an Indian feminist org) has got a piece on it. Hell, even a link to the campaign's website would have been nice.
Thanks for the links..I added them. You can send links to editors if you feel they have been overlooked. Everyone is always open to adding and updating posts.
Thanks Sanhita! I'll email you links to Indian media now.
Here is the most recent news, from Nisha Susan herself, at the Guardian.
I think the phrase "mens rights activists" makes no sense here, unless you've heard the way it gets used in the states (or at least in a certain part of the blogosphere from the states). Its often used to refer to men who constantly talk about how they're being oppressed because women are allowed to, like, vote.
Its sort of like how if you came from a different century, you might think the phrase "pro-life" is harmless and good. I mean, who would be against life? But if you know its used to mean people who want to force others to be pregnant, it means something completely different.
I'm not sure how widespread this use of "mens rights activists" is, but I don't think I'd like to perpetuate it, myself. Men should be allowed to discuss their rights in general withouto the phrase being coopted to mean something bad. (I like how Dan Savage uses "straight rights" when he talks about places that make, say, premarital sex illegal. I wouldn't want "straight rights" to come to mean "oppressing gays")
Actually, I've mostly seen the phrase "men's rights activists" used in conjunction with divorce and child custody matters, but I agree, it makes less sense here.
I like the statement they'd be making with the panties, but after being assaulted in a bar, I worry about the safety of all the other women they're urging to go into bars as well.
This is true too. I was just talking to a group of women here (that would be Calcutta) about this issue last night. Certainly this is a concern among women. Today as I was reading the varied news stories about the campaign, I noticed that the New York Times article says Ram Sena plan to campaign against Valentine's Day, the same day of the pub action, and that made me feel a little more nervous, despite Calcutta's a distance from Mangalore. I'll be having a drink at a pub that evening, as will the other women I was with. Even the women who don't drink are planning to go to a pub, just as a show of solidarity. Sometimes the benefit (even if it's just a personal sense of empowerment) outweighs the risk.
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/ceri_radford/blog/2009/02/10/indian_women_say_knickers_to_hindu_taliban
Though I am horrified by the actions of this group of men, the idea to send pink chaddi's really makes me smile. I love when groups of women are able to organize around something like this which gives them power in a situation that might otherwise make them feel powerless. Awesome!
Samhita, please don't forget that this site has a wide readership outside the US, and many of us aren't going to have the same culturally loaded connotations to words or phrases as you do. There are men's rights activists doing fantastic work all over the world that benefits whole communities. Just because you read the terms as meaning 'nutjob' doesn't mean that's all it means...
Hey there,
Wanted to add something I read in the papers in India. It seems the RamSena is going to conduct forced marriages to people who are found in pubs on Valentine's Day. Good lord!
-anin
They are not Mens' Rights activists, just small time politicians trying to get some publicity.
Sections of society in India want to keep their "culture" intact just as conservative christians in America feel about some things. ( no justification, just showing similarities )
Mainstream politicians want to play it safe, including the Congress. So no left wing/right wing here ...
Lack of Law and Order is the only problem, as I see it.