{"id":1515,"date":"2016-03-29T10:32:00","date_gmt":"2016-03-29T10:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=1515"},"modified":"2016-03-29T10:32:00","modified_gmt":"2016-03-29T10:32:00","slug":"eve-teasing-sexual-harassment-savage-comebacks-women-safety","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=1515","title":{"rendered":"How to Hit Your Harasser with a Comeback"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

T<\/span>he first time I was <\/p>harassed<\/a>, I must have been in Class VII. The last time I remember being harassed was two years ago. That\u2019s a solid quarter of a century of harassment. That is also a quarter of a century of me walking away, ignoring it, and taking the path of least resistance. Of not screaming, shouting, abusing, hitting back, or doing anything more than choosing silence. I have stayed awake at night and thought of things that I should have said or done. I\u2019ve thought about it in the middle of dinner or while driving to work, sometimes years after an incident, a decade even. I have lost count of the number of times I have hit the steering wheel hard, and said, \u201cDammit! That\u2019s what I should have said.\u201d\n\nTwenty-five years of hearing nonsense on roads, buses, rickshaws has prompted me to create a list of closeted comebacks. This is THAT list. A ready reckoner, if you please, of the ugliest, nastiest, dirtiest things you can say back when ugly, nasty, dirty things are being said to you. I realise, of course, that not all harassment stories are verbal, some are achingly physical but the right words at the right time can be a salve of some sort. The man, who groped me in the movie theatre when I was leaving, should have been slapped. Even if I didn\u2019t have the courage to raise my hand, words I should have had.\n\nThe funny thing is that when I sat down to make this list, I was certain there would be a long list of lewd comments I could come up with. After all, I had all these years of experience hearing them. But I was wrong. I had a very high frequency but within a smallish set of very typical comments. I asked some girl friends. I figured surely men across Delhi, Bangalore, Pune, Baroda, Mumbai, and Patna can come up with better than \u201cOye baby\u201d, \u201cChalegi kya?\u201d, \u201cKitne mein aayegi.\u201d Apparently not. All the comments were similarly dirty put-downs but also similarly non-creative ones. Because \u201cthey\u201d had not collaborated, I suppose. But we can.\n

The next time he asks you to grab his cock, tell him, \u201cSorry. I didn\u2019t bring any tweezers.\u201d<\/blockquote>\nSo the next time you come out of a pharmacy and the man lurking near the postbox asks if you bought a condom, you should tell him you wish his parents had, so you wouldn\u2019t have to deal with an asshole like him.\n\nThe next time you are asked what you rate is, you should tell him that by the look of his cheap nylon shirt, he couldn\u2019t afford you anyway.\n\nThe next time he asks you to grab his cock, tell him, \u201cSorry. I didn\u2019t bring any tweezers.\u201d\n\nThe next time he calls under the pretext of asking the time and then flashes<\/a> you, tell him his time has not come yet. He still has some growing up to do.\n\nThe next time a man makes kissing sounds when you pass by, tell him it\u2019s a good thing he is practising on himself. Nobody else was going to kiss him anyway.\n\nThe next time someone tells you, \u201cYou are dressed like a whore\u201d, turn around and say, \u201cComing from the guy dressed like a virgin?\u201d\n\nThe next time a man brushes against you in public transport, ask him LOUDLY how you can help him, since he can\u2019t seem to stand without assistance.\n\nI don\u2019t know if the men who pass these lewd comments will read this; I hope they do. But I hope that some of the women, who have to deal harassment this every day, read this and are able to use some of it when they need to.\n\nIt may make you feel a little better. It may not. But it should make the men feel like crap. Which is the half the battle won.\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Did he ask you, \u201cWhat\u2019s your rate?\u201d Next time turn around and tell him, \u201cBy the look of your cheap nylon shirt, you can\u2019t afford me anyway!\u201d A laundry list of comebacks for all the women who are harassed or eve-teased.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":173,"featured_media":1516,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[170],"tags":[2614,2719,2720,2615,2721,2722,2723,2724],"class_list":["post-1515","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gender","tag-eve-teasing","tag-eve-teasing-cases-in-india","tag-eve-teasing-comebacks","tag-eve-teasing-in-india","tag-eve-teasing-mumbai","tag-india-sexual-harassment","tag-savage-comebacks","tag-sexual-harassment-india"],"yoast_head":"\nHow to Hit Your Harasser with a Comeback<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Did he ask you, \u201cWhat\u2019s your rate?\u201d 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