Recently, a man shared a video of a girl commuting in the Delhi Metro, and felt the need to shame the said girl for the outfit she was wearing. According to his caption, he felt that it was nudity. However, many of us couldn’t help but wonder how he felt so comfortable in filming her without her consent. Cut to now, and the DMRC has responded to the entire incident and that doesn’t answer our questions either.

Of course many people came forward to speak up for the girl and tried to hold @captain_jeet accountable for his actions. From pointing out that filming a person without their consent is grave misconduct to also sharing that broadcasting misogynistic opinions on social media can impact women’s safety to a large extent, netizens said it all.

But the DMRC has responded to the video by saying that “The DMRC expects its commuters to follow all social etiquette and protocols which are acceptable in the society. Commuters should not indulge in any activity or wear any attire which could offend the sensibilities of other fellow passengers.”

And added that, “We appeal to all our passengers to kindly maintain decorum while travelling in a public transport system like the Metro. However, issues such as the choice of clothing while travelling is a personal issue and passengers are expected to self-regulate their conduct in a responsible manner.” So, while they’ve mentioned that a person’s choice of clothing is their personal issue, no authoritative figure has made the effort to call the man out for recording a woman without her consent.

It’s the same old story of people giving women all sorts of logical (or legal) explanations for why we should carry ourselves in a certain way. But of also, how no one calls out the person who is putting women’s safety at risk.

Unfortunately, there were others who felt the girl should not have been dressed that way, and continued to shift the attention to her actions rather than holding the man who filmed her accountable.

Are we always going to tell women how to exist? When will we finally see predatory actions for what they are?