End This Now! Kolkata Professor’s Sick Gyaan On Virgin Brides

“Akeli ladki khuli tijori ki tarah hoti hai”

So said the stationmaster in Jab We Met, echoing what many men think about women. But that was a movie, a work of fiction and what’s happened now is a shocking slap on womanhood. A professor from Kolkata’s Jadavpur University has give some ‘muft ka gyaan’ on why men should not marry women who are not virgins. Comparing women to cold drink bottles and packets, professor Kanak Sarkar has come under fire for his social media posts on women’s virginity.

A Label On Women’s Virginity

His recent Facebook post has ignited a debate on why women are always considered as objects and why their sexuality is measured by the society which does not judge men for the same. His Facebook post stated that, “Virgin girl is like sealed bottle or sealed packet. Are you willing to buy broken seal while purchasing a bottle of cold drinks or a packet of biscuits...To most boys' virgin wife is like angel." He had to delete the post after a nationwide outrage but defended it saying that it was a personal opinion on virgin brides.

In The Times Of Me Too

But Sarkar’s misogynist and sexist views are nothing new as many men still ask about a women’s virginity before they are to get married. As per such men, sex is a matter of morality and honesty but this applies only to the women. What’s more, it has nothing to do with their education, profession or the company they keep. Case in point is cricketer Hardik Pandya who came under fire for boasting about having sex with many women on Karan Johar’s show Koffee With Karan. Such incidents show how necessary the Me Too and Times Up movements are as we need to speak up about the blatant toxic masculinity that’s out there. The age old practice of men showing off bedding women as conquests while women being shamed at sluts for having sex should be stopped now before we create another generation of men who have no respect whatsoever for women.

Read More: Dealing With Harassment At Workplace In The #MeToo Era

Woman's Virginity=Progress?

Professor Sarkar, who claimed that a girl is biologically sealed from birth until someone opens it, also cited the example of the Japanese, saying that they proudly claim that 99 percent Japanese girls remain virgin till marriage. Japanese society is so progressive and developed, he said. Really? Is this a sign of progress where gender inequality exists like this? Is it a sign of development if women are still seen as something to be conquered and not considered fit if they are not virgin?

But hope still remains in the form of men like Jitendar Chattar, a farmer from Haryana, who married a gang rape survivor despite facing a lot of opposition and threats from the society. He has vowed to get the rapists punished and also worked to prevent female foeticide in the state of Haryana which is known for its culture of patriarchy.

We still live in a society where there are doubts about a woman’s consent, a woman’s morality is questioned on the basis of what she wears and where feminism that aims at creating equality is seen as a crime. So it is quite right that we raise our voice to drown out such shameless views and bring about a much needed change for some real development and progress.

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