Why stop at disqualifying DU college theatre group, let's just ban bras and panties

Would you refer to a cat any differently for the fear of offending someone with the word "cat"? No. Now, in much the same way, the pertinent question is, does the word "clothes" sound offensive to you? Possibly not.

How do underclothes - especially bras and panties - manage to upset you?

When judges at Delhi government's cultural wing, the Mahavidhyalaya Theatre Festival of Sahitya Kala Parishad, disqualify theatre group Lakshya citing the use of "offensive language" such as "bras" and "panties" in plays, you know why even a designer must call her brand of lingerie Victoria's "Secret".

It's intriguing whether it is the bra that offends or what the bra supports. Whether it is the panty or the vagina that intimidates.

According to a Facebook post by a participant, when the performers asked the judges to explain the reasons for their disqualification, they ran away.

Such was the judges' distress that they couldn't even utter the words "bra" and "panty".

Put together, they could well be nuclear missiles launched on the judges' fragile egos to crush them.

There is nothing more liberating for most women than to let go of a piece of clothing that is a mere support tool, which, according to some doctors, can cause lumps if worn while sleeping at night.

The lifetime of a bra or a panty can tell you a lot about the women who wear them.

They are humiliated for keeping breasts in shape, for upholding a woman's "modesty", for coming in all shapes, colours and sizes - and go beyond the boundaries of religion, caste and creed. They are secular in the true sense of the word.

Hence, they must remain controversy-free.

The choice of doing away with bras and panties (bra-burning) is seen as violent feminism while wearing them for utility or even speaking about them is seen as a moral disgrace. Now, which way should the bra sway?

Which of the two explains the judges' discomfort? The history of the Pink Chaddi campaign, bra-burning protests, free-the-nipple debates, or simply the words?

Is it because the words pose a threat to the mindset that refuses to let a woman acknowledge her body's existence in the public space?

Few years ago, an conservative group in Israel sent notices to shop owners on strict standards to be followed on the sale and display of female garments, banning the sale of underclothes of certain colours and extravagant designs.

They were seeking to curb anything that gave women a sense of liberty and the ownership of their bodies.

In a country that slut-shames women for their attitude and clothing choices, one that is comfortable using cuss words threatening mothers and sisters, where menstruation is still a taboo and where women's sexual desires are censored, it is easy for us women to let go off panties and bras, in the name of public interest.

Let's drop these too, in the name of our nation.