Campaign conveys message that women don't ask for it

BENGALURU: "What message are you giving out with that outfit,“ is a question most women have faced at some point in their lives. It could have come from a parent, friend, relative or even a stranger on the street who thinks wearing a skirt or strapless blouse is an invitation to pass judgment, or even worse, abuse the woman.
The tendency to blame women's sartorial choices has led to the creation of I Never Ask For It, a campaign initiated by Blank Noise.It aims to arrest blame through clothing testimonials. Blank Noise is a community of individuals fighting sexual abuse and gender violence.
"When we interact with survivors of sexual abuse, what they were wearing at that particular time usually comes up," said Jasmeen Patheja, founder of Blank Noise. “We thought it was something worth discussing, investigating and questioning“ she added.
The campaign's website has an entire page devoted to testimonials. Each discusses the survivor's age, what she was wearing during the incident and the perpetrator. Posted along with the account is a photograph or illustration of the clothes in question. Each item of clothing is different -shirts, skirts, kurtas, children's dresses and even a school uniform. Till date, pictures of 200 such garments have been posted on the website, 100 of which were recently displayed at Max Mueller Bhavan.
"I was out shopping that day ... I was wearing a sleeveless top and noticed people staring at me in the bus from Yelahanka to Commercial Street. Somehow, I got past that. A little later, we got down at a place for snacks and once again I felt uncomfortable... I uneasy just because I wore a sleeveless outfit," reads a testimonial from the campaign's website.
In most cases of sexual violence, the woman is blamed for bringing it upon herself.The clothes she wore and the person she accompanied are often questioned. Sometimes, women themselves feel at fault, thinking their clothes may have triggered the act of violence. In other words, they feel they `asked for it' in some way or the other. The campaign hopes to change this mindset. It invites victims of sexual harassment to send a picture of the garment, which becomes the "witness, memory, evidence and voice of the sender's experience".
Blank Noise hopes to collect 10,000 garments over the next few years, and exhibit them at sites of public significance to drive home the message that no matter what a man or woman is wearing, it is in no way an invitation to sexually harass or abuse them.
The community's initial focus may have been on street harassment, but it is slowly moving towards creating a platform for radically different people to come together and share their experiences -be it an upper middle class housewife living with domestic abuse or a sex worker dealing violence at the workplace.