Boys Locker Room scandal: Are boys the only culprit?

Boys locker room— Found this hashtag trending on my Twitter feed last night. But I didn’t click it to find what it was, as most of these things are usually not my cup of tea.

When I found numerous posts related to these on my Instagram feed and stories today, I was curious to know what the boys locker room was all about. One of my female friends had written a long post about it, so I read the post for some information.

Her post talked about the rights of girls, women empowerment, etc. She said that sharing of nudes and half-naked photos of underage girls is the new cool thing for boys nowadays. Her eyes are burning with pain for the situation of girls some men have made.

“What is the use of all the privileged education those boys got?”

“Is objectifying women, body shaming them, viraling the nudes, and threatening to fuck them is the new cool the generation is developing?”

She said that she had many such questions, but the answers are lesser. Hats off to the girls who stood up against this and exposed the boys locker room group on Instagram.

Well, that’s great!

But is it okay to blame only the boys?

What about the girls who sent the nudes to the guys?

What about the parents who couldn’t get enough time to bring enough morality to these boys?

Is it right to blame only the boys and their boys locker room scandal?

What is Boys Locker Room scandal?

Boys locker room scandal is all about a private chat group on Instagram which included teenagers from South Delhi. The group had around 30 members, all of whom are teenagers. The actual name of the group was Bois Locker Room, which was being used to share photos of girls, mostly nudes and semi-nudes of teenage girls.

The boys would usually share such photos, pass on the comments, share more photos, pass on the comments, and repeat. They also used the group to leak nudes of their so-called girlfriends and their sex experience with the girls they talk about.

The exposure of Bois Locker Room chat group

The Bois Locker Room chat group was exposed by one of the female friends of the group members. She shared about the group on Instagram and asked other people to report it.

A few girls who knew the members of Bois Locker Room joined in and started sharing things via their posts and stories on Instagram. The guys were exposed.

In response, these boys planned to threaten the girls by leaking their nude photos and videos. They used wrong and abusive words for the girls, which have become the talk of the town today.

Feminists are raising the issue by calling it racism, calling boys the influencers of rape culture in India, and whatnot.

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Is it right to blame only the boys?

First things first. The Bois locker room chat group on Instagram was created by some students aged between 15 to 20. So, basically, these boys are teenagers studying in either 10^th, 11^th, or 12^th.

We all are aware that use of smartphones among teenagers has increased today, which was not the case a few years ago. Even a 5-year-old today knows how to use a smartphone, thanks to the parents who want to distract the children and keep them busy.

When I heard about the boys locker room scandal, the chain of thoughts took me to the parents, rather than the boys who did and the girls who were abused.

Obviously, parents haven’t taught them to do such things. But they haven’t raised them well, either. In metro cities like New Delhi, parents are busy with their full-time corporate jobs, and never considering compromising with the jobs. Even a newborn baby is raised by either grandparents or maids today.

Maids are everything.

When I moved to Jaipur from Jodhpur around three years ago, I came across a new term for the first time. It’s creche. I had never heard this word before. While walking from my apartment to office in the morning, there was this yellow house which had written creche over it on a big poster.

I asked my senior teammate what a creche is. She was surprised that being a writer who writes and comes across hundreds of new words every month didn’t know what the meaning of creche is.

So, she told me that a creche is a place where people can leave their children for care while they are busy with their lives.

It sounded disgusting to me. I won’t fight here on who should take the responsibility of the child— mother or the father. My point here is that children nowadays are not raised by their parents. They are raised by maids, Bai Jis, and at a creche.

In the evening when the parents are home, they are busy with their own smartphones and hand another to the children. Great going!

And when these boys and girls grow up to create groups like Boys Locker Room, these parents are shocked.

The truth is that the boys are not be blamed alone. Parents are equally responsible for such things. Girls are equally responsible for such scandals. As the saying goes, “It takes two to make a quarrel”, or “Taali ek hath se nhi bajti hai” in Hindi.

There are 14-15-year-old girls roaming around with Unwanted-72 and iPills in their bags and clutches. They don’t know the consequences of these things.

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How some people are hypocrites in the name of feminism?

Some so-called feminists and girls are actually using the boys locker room scandal for their own benefits—to gain followers and become an influencer. Publicity is everything. And there are dumb guys who will follow every other girl and send stupid messages to every random girl, trying their luck.

Well, there are a couple of girls I came across on Instagram related to this scandal who are actually the centre of attraction. Won’t take the names of those girls, as it will be indirect publicity for them.

So, these girls are claiming to fight for the girl’s rights in the name of women empowerment and feminism.

Their point is that the boys used wrong words for the private parts of the girls, called them ugly and whatnot. This is called the body-shaming.

The same girls are abusing the boys, indirectly calling them gays, small dicks, etc. Great! Calling a girl saggy boobs or ugly pussy is body-shaming. Calling a boy small dick and gay is not. Cool!

Don’t know from where these girls are coming from. All I know is that there are hundreds of stupid people who have followed such girls instantly. The girls who had only 500 followers a day back, now has 50K+ followers. Cool!

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Wrapping up:

I’m really disappointed with what’s happening nowadays. 15-year olds sharing nudes with each other, these nudes being forwarded for fun, then girls are blackmailed, killed, raped, looted, etc. At no point in my life, I’ll support such boys. My only point with the write-up is that only boys are not the culprits. Parents are equally responsible. Girls are equally responsible.

If a guy is asking for nudes, clearly refuse him. If you are emotionally blackmailed that he’ll leave if you don’t send nudes, then better let him go. You deserve better.

What are your thoughts on the Boys Locker Room scandal? Feel free to share using the comments below.