Why we need more mothers like Kavita Krishnan's to talk about 'free sex'
Slut-shaming is perhaps the cheapest trick in the world to put a woman down and Hindutva trolls are notorious for wielding exactly that weapon from their arsenal of bullshit.
Much like the "wild sex and drugs" dossier on "anti-national" JNU, "free sex" is supposedly an aspersion in the troll universe, which prefers patriarchal coercion and control over any liberated expression and sensation of love, by women, but also men.
Something which Kavita Krishnan, Polit Bureau member of the Communist Party of India (ML) and secretary of All India Progressive Women's Association (APIWA), faces almost on a routine basis. Notwithstanding the frequent rape threats she gets that are supposed to intimidate the feminists or shut up the women students and faculty members of struggling central universities.
Hence, when a troll tried slut-shaming the noted activist and feminist on a social media platform, he thought the easiest way would be to drag in the latter's mother and ask if she had had "free sex".
| Lakshmi Krishnan (L) and civil rights activist Kavita Krishnan. [Source: Facebook] |
As if there are any other kinds of sex.
Only to get the most stinging and stunning reply that completely turned the tables. While Kavita Krishnan herself gave a stellar reply - "Er, yes, my mother did. Hopefully so did yours. Because if the woman is not free, it is not sex but rape. Get it" - what her mother, Lakshmi Krishnan, had to say was absolutely scintillating and point-blank.
"I am Kavita's mother. Of course I had free sex. I should jolly well hope so! As and when I wanted, with the person I wanted. And I fight for every woman and man to have sex according to their consent. Never unfree, never forced."
| Screenshot of Lakshmi Krishnan's stellar reply which has gone viral. |
Patriarchy boomerangs and how!
Lakshmi's reply left Kavita gushing of course: "My mum's kickass reply to trolls asking if my mother had 'free sex'. With ma and behen of the fantastic kind I have got, the trolls find it so ineffectual and frustrating to give ma behen ki gaali. This happened on this post about my article on the JNU 'dossier.'"
Such a proud moment for the mother-daughter duo and for every feminist around.