Bad boys
How to handle Pandya and Rahul’s offensive talk.So Hardik Pandya and KL Rahul revealed more than they intended on Karan Johar talk show, with their braggy, bawdy comments about women. They did not come across as powerful or successful by describing other humans like meat. They presented a swaggering model of masculinity, one that perpetuates implicit biases against women. It was desperately uncool – and Johar, egging them on, was complicit.
But now, the cricket establishment has decided to go overboard in punishing them, taking them out of the Australia ODI series, and ordering an inquiry that will decide how long this suspension will last. Ironically enough the BCCI CEO, who was accused of actual sexual harassment and whose exoneration is contested, initiated the inquiry. The tensions within the committee of administrators are spilling over into this case, which may be counterproductive. What Pandya and Rahul did is pervasiveacross our society. In many all-male spaces, sports, military and college dorms and WhatsApp groups, men occasionally bond by objectifying women, often laced with contempt. While women also talk about men, there is a clear difference: male locker-room talk is a symptom of a certain toxic culture.
But what Pandya and Rahul did should be met with public embarrassment and the scorn of their peers. To go beyond that, and punish them and hold back their careers for thought crimes, shows a lack of proportion. Instead, cricket administrators would do better by grooming players, showing them why some of these vestigial attitudes are unacceptable in our times.

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