Rape remark: Dear Salman, the machismo you brandish is dead. Move on

Remember the excitement, both negative and positive, when the Bombay High Court extended Salman Khan's bail? The nation was divided on the decision.

One section thought it was absolutely ludicrous to let a man go scot-free after he ran over a sleeping pedestrian with his Toyota Land Cruiser, another part was happy that their darling Bhai was free to finish his big-budget movies.

There was war on Twitter then and there is war on Twitter now. Thankfully, no one had to die this time for Salman to trend for almost three days back-to-back. It was a 'silly' comment the actor made on rape.

At a promotional event for his upcoming film Sultan, Salman compared himself to a raped woman. Apparently, all that insane training to play a wrestler in the movie scarred the actor so bad he was unable to walk straight. Much like a raped woman, the actor imagined.

The very moment the words left his mouth, there was a nervous titter among the journalists gathered at the interview and Salman knew he had committed a boo-boo.

"When I used to walk out of that ring, it used to be actually like a raped woman walking out....I don't think I should have (pauses). It feels like the most difficult....I couldn't take steps. I couldn't take steps," - that's what Salman allegedly said, according to The Indian Express.

For most, whatever Salman said stopped right at "...raped woman walking out...". Then all hell broke loose.

Let's take a step back for a moment. Salman used the word 'rape' to illustrate how physically ravaged he felt after each shoot. He could have used a different adjective - there are innumerable. He could have said he felt exhausted, obliterated, ravaged? But then I do not expect Salman to have the rhetoric or the presence of mind. He does movies like Prem Ratan Dhan Payo for crying out loud!

For the want of a thesaurus and some sense, Bhai used the word 'rape'.

Now, there are two ways to rip this apart. Because, there is no reason why any sensible, self-respecting human should not.

One, Salman's blatant lack of sensitivity, common sense and refusal to take responsibility for any mess he creates. The other, the millions of Salman's fans on Twitter and elsewhere who rose up in 140 characters (and more) to defend their star.

So, here's our problem Salman. You need to grow the f**k up. You need to realise that the machismo you brandish had pretty much lost currency by the time your father stopped writing scripts. Unlike Suman from Maine Pyar Kiya who was happy playing glorified maid servant at Prem's palatial house, women and their sense of self have evolved.

'Dosti mein no sorry no thank you' is dead. The Barjatiya way of being 'male' is dead, and no matter how much moolah the painful Prem Ratan Dhan Payo raked in, no one identifies with nor acknowledges men who use the word 'rape' lightly.

So throw your patch-work leather jacket away, learn to drive like a human being and stop being so incredibly daft when you speak.

Salman is not known to take responsibility and this isn't anything new. He didn't do it for shooting a black buck, for roughing up and harassing ex-girlfriend Aishwarya Rai and definitely not for running over people in a drunken rampage.

Also read: #SalmanKhan walks free: the story of the eyewitness deemed 'inadmissible'

But this time around, a refusal to apologise and acknowledge his terrible faux pas just makes Salman a terrible person. And Salim Khan apologising does not count. Retracting the 'statement' means nothing.

Vocabulary or no vocabulary, the fact that Salman thought it was fine to use the word 'rape' to describe how he could not walk straight due to extremely strenuous training - is the biggest problem.

It is interesting that he knows that a woman who has been raped cannot walk straight - for his intelligence that's perhaps a lot. But that's all he knows.

He clearly does not watch news, he knows no statistics and he does not have the sensitivity to understand the trauma of rape. He does not know how big a problem 'rape' is for this country.

His philanthropy runs its course at Being Human, and that's where the story ends.

You can brush it aside like an offensive word said by a truant child, but the point is - don't. As a Bollywood star he needs to step up and admit that he said something wrong, doesn't matter what he meant.

Also read: Buckets of happiness: How Salman Khan helped boost the careers of Housefull 3's Sajid-Farhad

Are we to believe that if the journalists gathered at the meet had not reacted, the actor would not even have known that he said something wrong? That he would not have explained?

Yes. Perhaps he would not have. He doesn't have the sense for it. Bollywood lackeys might call him all heart, scurry for favours and hang on tenterhooks so as to not miff Bhaijaan - but he just does not know what 'rape' is all about. And that's not excusable, not in this day and age - he needs to learn and learn fast.

What followed the uproar was a windfall of trending hashtags on Twitterverse - #InsensitiveSalman #boycottsalman and then came #PaidMediaCantPullSalmanDown - and in all this singer Sona Mohapatra got mercilessly attacked for her tweet -