Masturbating In Public Is Not A ‘Victimless Crime’

It seems that we are beginning to lose all expectations of decency from India’s men. Most specifically when it comes to public safety and violence against women, why is it that incidents have to be so drastic and horrifying to warrant some kind of outcry? Often times, when it comes to the fight against misogyny and patriarchy, women are the ones that are pushing us three steps backwards for every progressive move we make. This is becoming clearer when it comes to topics like public harassment, workplace misconduct and most recently, public masturbation.

Taslima Nasreen’s recent tweet lays bare the kind of thinking that one kind of harassment is worse than the other. That getting ‘eve teased’ on the road is not that bad. Why? Because at least you didn’t get raped. Her comment about some men’s need to masturbate in public around women being a ‘victimless crime’ is highly problematic. Not only is she, a female public personality who has had her own politics in the past (some criticised others lauded), excusing such perverted acts but she is also negating the experience of countless young girls and women being made to feel uncomfortable and violated in public spaces of their own country.

These are PUBLIC spaces, open to men, women, children, gender non-conforming individuals, and all else. This has been a fight that has long been battled, to let women feel secure in these spaces, that they have as much a right to, as every man who just can’t help but touch himself, gaining cheap thrills by staring down passing young girls for fleeting moments of pleasure.

This is not meant to point fingers at Ms. Nasreen but rather, the issue and kind of thinking that needs to be understood, and changed. Giving a free pass to such disturbing behaviour is one of the reasons that workplace sexual harassment will never be taken seriously and it sets a larger precedent when it comes to sexual assault – masturbating at someone in public can count as a potential stepping stone towards more dangerous sexually predatory behaviour at a later point. Asking women to concede and simply ignore the actions of such perverts in what should be neutral spaces, is in the same vein as telling them to just smile and move on when it comes to the workplace as well.

We need to be able to focus on more than one thing at a time when it comes to equality and reducing the violence against women. Why is it an either/or situation? Either you bring down rapes OR punish public masturbation – isn’t the root of the problem here the same? Why can’t progress be simultaneous?

We cannot define for women how they should and cannot feel in moments that they are being objectified by the male gaze. You cannot define who makes a victim and what is a victimless crime, just because it doesn’t involve something as heinous as gang rape. The most basic tenet of equality would be working towards women actually feeling at ease and getting to-and-from places. This is not a victimless crime, and we can’t be setting the bar so low when it comes to morality and our expectations from men to keep it in their pants.

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