THE VENUS FLYTRAP A movement to break the misogyny hidden in words

N November, psychologist and social media influencer Divija Bhasin started the 'Proud Randi Movement' online, encouraging women and girls in India to take back the meaning of a misogynistic Hindi slur by adding it to a hashtag to their bios.

- SHARANYA MANIVANNAN

Bhasin said in a reel: "If we stop finding this word insulting, men will lose the power to use it as an insult."

The Proud R movement has had interesting offline predecessors when it comes to the reclamation of certain words. The Slutwalks of the early 2010s come to mind, of course. The first Slutwalk was in Toronto, in response to a police officer shaming women for their clothing. More were organised internationally; in India they were held in Bhopal, Delhi and Kolkata. The United States saw a "pussyhat movement" during which protestors wore pink hats to the 2017 Women's March, with the accessory serving as a rejoinder to President Donald Trump's widelyreported statement on women: "grab them by the p***y."