Bangalore Men Wear Skirts To Raise Awareness About Rape, Misogyny

Oh, so you did a SlutWalk in Brooklyn once, and now you think you’re edgy? Sorry, ladies, but you don’t get to call yourself edgy until you do a SlutWalk in India as a guy. Which, we imagine, would be rather difficult for you because flight prices are really insane lately.

But that’s exactly what a group of gents in Bangalore did this weekend. In the wake of the brutal gang-rape and murder of a young Delhi woman — and comments from government officials and academics implying that women are partly to blame for their assaults — Adithya Mallya and Samarpita Samaddar thought up a brilliant way to raise awareness about the issue. They organized “Don’t Skirt the Issue” on Facebook asking men to wear skirts on Saturday to point out the absurdity of the “they were asking for it” mentality:

Wear a skirt and speak to as many as you can against the misconception that what a woman wears is the cause for sexual violence against her. Go about your day as usual, go to work, go shopping, watch a movie, but do it in a skirt wherever you are. But do tell people why you’re wearing it…

Why does wearing a skirt make a difference? It’s a satirical take on the issue to draw attention to the absurd idea that what a woman wears invites sexual assault. Wear that skirt as a symbol of your support to a woman’s right to wear what she wants, be who she is, exercise her rights, and be safe in her city…

Meanwhile, in New York, people took off their pants and rode the subway this weekend for no other reason than comedy… because improv only gets funnier when you rehearse it and do it again and again for eight twelve years running. Good job, New Yorkers. You really made a difference to the three tourists who were seeing this stunt for the first time.