Dear Sanskari Fashion Police, Stop Telling Us What Not To Wear

A member of the sanskari fashion police took to Twitter to criticise a group of women for going to a restaurant dressed in “micro-minis”. Mister Custodian-of-Indian-culture bragged in a series of tweets about how he left the following message of disapproval on the scribble board at a prominent Mumbai restaurant.

I was in a prominent restaurant in Mumbai waiting for my friend , It was posh and expensive place. in the adjacent tables there were 6 women dressed in micro minis. There was a scribbling board in the restaurant , i took the marker and wrote the following sentences.

— Madhav (@mahesh10816) July 5, 2018

" In our traditional Indian culture , everyone used to wake up early, take bath early , dress properly , do pooja , have prasadam, follow proper etiquette , were very clean & neat in appearence and used to attract people by their fragrance of good qualities ,...

— Madhav (@mahesh10816) July 5, 2018

"... but now that these qualities are fast eroding , people are trying to attract others by exposing their bodies and not qualities ... Kali yuga "

Those micro minis read this one by one then they came to me for an argument... end of the argument . they thanked me & felt bad

— Madhav (@mahesh10816) July 5, 2018

few women cried and said " no one told us that this kind of revealing dress is bad, we thought we are the fad, now we know its not fad but bad "

— Madhav (@mahesh10816) July 5, 2018

Yet another incident where a member of the sanskari brigade took it upon himself to not mind his own business and run behind women with a measuring tape.

It seems even in posh restaurants, members of sanskari brigade just cannot chew on their food in silence. It is compulsory for them to puke their misogynist remarks on social media.

The offence is in your mind, Sir

First of all, congratulations, to Mr Custodian, for having so much time on his hands. This dude who allegedly dines at  “posh” Mumbai restaurants not only wrote the lines on the restaurant’s scribble board, but also came home and recalled it all on Twitter. Not all of us can afford such a leisurely life, sir.

And he even claims that the women (whom he refers to as micro-minis in one tweet), felt bad after reading his message and came to thank him.

“Few women cried and said no one told us that this kind of revealing dress is bad, we thought we are the fad, now we know it's not fad but bad.” Full marks for the rhyming scheme here!

When will men in this country stop ogling at what women are wearing? When will they stop this moral policing and shaming of women for degrading culture by “exposing their bodies to attract others”?

Short clothes never lead to sexual assaults it is the dirty misogynist mentality, which objectifies women as only their body parts does. But instead of trying to repair our fractured mentality, the sanskari fashion police criticises women for polluting innocent and gullible male minds. Those minds which rape and molest even school girls.

A dirty mind finds even a fully covered body lusty and provocative. Whereas a liberal and progressive one minds its own business, instead of creeping around and judging women.

Time and again we have to shout that it's not our clothes, but your mentality which is at fault. But people like Mr Custodian, completely ignore the entitlement with which men objectify women. What these people do not understand is that even if women cover their bodies from head to toe, they will attract unwanted male attention. What next then? Will you criticise us for leaving our houses to buy grocery? Will you criticise us for stepping out to have a lunch with our girlfriends? Today it is the micro minis, tomorrow it will be our laughter or just our physical presence. Will this policing even end when women are entirely banished from leaving their homes?

It's about time Mr Custodian of Indian culture and his army of self-righteous sanskari fashion police realised that it is their gaze that needs to change. Wearing micro minis won’t harm our culture, but defending male sexual aggression and putting the blame on women’s clothes will. For now, all I want to say to this man is that it is none of your business what women wear. So the next time you see women in micro minis at an expensive restaurant, swallow your opinion about their dresses with your soup.

Also Read : We See a Lot of Moral Policing but it’s Time to Police Trolls!

Yamini Pustake Bhalerao is a writer with the SheThePeople team, in the Opinions section. The views expressed are the author’s own.