It is a crude reality indeed.
It has so happened that when a handsome man shows a bit of skin it does not trigger the same kind of reaction from the people around. Not that I wish it would or wouldn't. I think my point is that this story illustrates how much the image of a woman's body has been so generally sexualised that most people don't question how we look at it anymore.
I don't think we should be ashamed of instinctively checking out something sexy - it is human, and I myself appreciate the beauty and sexiness when I observe even a woman.
Maybe the solution to overcome this kind of behaviour is not to judge it for the behaviour itself but to educate which way this girl could have been looked at more respectfully.
As a woman, when I check out a man's body, I have been brought up in doing so with subtlety: it is more socially acceptable. And the fact that I am looking at a man's body appreciating his sexiness does not immediately translate to: "how do I get to touch this or put this in my bed?"
Opening the dialogue on this things and having friends from the opposite sex helps putting all this in perspective. I don't want to be so harsh on these boys who were checking her over because for me their behaviour is full of ignorance. And although I can see how culturally it relates to your point on New Dehli, the capital of rape, as far as this story goes they are not rapist: just ill-manered and opportunist.
I believe repression might not be the best way to change this culture, but respect and better understanding of each other could be.
I completely agree with you. I shall focus on the last part of your comment. We have seen then in most of the cases of rape in Delhi, it all started from teasing and when the offender feels that it cannot be noticed they become violent and try to take the advantage which results in something like Nirbhaya. I do not want to be Harsh to anyone. If I talk about myself, Do I check girls? My answer is yes but more than checking it is admiring and then comes respect. I just wanted to convey the message that children should be educated to respect women.
As you say: more than checking out it is admiring.
I am not surprised by what you are saying on which way most of the rapes happen in Dehli, and my point wasn't to deny the existing problems of sexual misconducts. They are here, in New Delhi but also everywhere.
Which brings me back to your anwer: how do you know how to respect the opposite sex if you haven't been taught to do so? How do you canalise this energy that seems to be so instictive and animal and see the other side of it in its pure beauty if all what you have witnessed around you have always been animals trying to fulfill their crave?
It is not impossible for people to have a humanist touch in the middle of savagery and to realise that considering a beautiful body as a piece of meat is wrong for whoever is living through this body, but when the norm is to follow quite primitive pulsions then it is harder to take a step back and see the humanity in the object we are checking out.
So yes, you are totally right: education is one of the keys in mutual respect. Not the only factor, but one of the most important ones.