Boys Locker Room: Sonam Kapoor, Siddhant Chaturvedi, Swara Bhasker call out group chat glorifying rape culture

For the unversed, the Boys Locker Room controversy revolves around a group of Delhi teens’ group chat on Instagram that glorifies rape culture, objectifies young girls and their classmates and shares their photos.

Amid the coronavirus crisis, one of the most shocking piece of news to have surfaced was the Boys Locker Room controversy on Monday. For the unversed, the controversy revolves around a group of Delhi teens’ group chat on Instagram that glorifies rape culture, objectifies young girls and their classmates and shares their photos. The chats in this group named ‘Bois Locker Room’ quickly went viral and was called out by thousands of netizens on social media. As per reports, A Delhi schoolboy has been taken into custody by the police after strong notices were issued. 

While netizens were reeling from the shock of one such group, it has now come to light on social media that a similar female version named ‘Girls Locker Room’ has also been operational. While no reports have confirmed the same, Bollywood celebs took to social media to voice their thoughts on this disturbing topic.

Actress Sonam Kapoor took to her Instagram Story and wrote, “This reeks of entitlement and gross negligence on parents’ part. The parents are to be blamed for raising sons who don’t respect human beings and spoiling the. And, boys you should be ashamed.” Whereas, Gully Boy actor Siddhant Chaturvedi shared a photo on Instagram with locker room as a virus. “Extreme Red zones.#BoysLockerRoom #GirlsLockerRoom Disgusting,” the actor captioned his photo. 

Swara Bhasker also shared her thoughts on Twitter and wrote, “#boyslockerroom a telling tale of how toxic masculinity starts young! Underage boys gleefully planning how to rape & gangrape minor girls. Parents & teachers must address this with those Kids.. Not enough to ‘hang rapists’ .. we must attack the mentality that creates rapists!” 

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Four More Shots Please actress Maanvi Gagroo also wrote a note on the controversy for The Quint. She said, “The question is ‘How did we get here?’ Is it the systemic normalisation of violence against women in our pop culture? Casual rape jokes? Dated yet a deeply internalised idea of ‘giving the daughter away in marriage’ or the widely accepted assertion of patriarchal ownership our rituals are ridden with?! Yes, misogyny begins at home. It seeps through our words. It reinstates through our actions & it is enabled through our gender-based morality.”