Supreme Court issues handbook on gender stereotypes

New Delhi, August 16

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Housewife, concubine, keep, mistress, prostitute, whore, hooker, harlot, slut, adulteress and woman of easy virtue are some of the words and expressions you will not find in court verdicts and petitions any more. The Supreme Court has issued a ‘Handbook on Gender Stereotypes’ to help rid gender bias in drafting judgments and petitions, Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud said on Wednesday.

Many words to go from verdicts, pleas

Expressions such as keep, housewife, concubine, mistress, prostitute, whore, hooker, harlot, adulteress, slut and woman of easy virtue to become passé in judgments and petitions

Other such words or expressions the handbook seeks to dissuade judges and lawyers from using include spinster, unwed mother, affair, bastard, chaste woman, career woman, fallen woman, eve teasing, dutiful wife/faithful wife/good wife/obedient wife, breadwinner and trans-sexual.

The handbook goes on to suggest alternative or preferred words for all these ‘objectionable’ expressions to make them gender bias free, such as woman, wife, mother, sex worker and homemaker.

Noting that often assumptions are made about a woman’s character based on her expressive choices such as her clothes and sexual history, it sought to distinguish between the stereotypes and the reality concerning sex and sexual violence.

The handbook also gave a list of gender ‘stereotypes’ and ‘reality’ to give a conceptual clarity to judges and lawyers.

It’s a stereotype that women who dress in clothes not considered to be traditional want to engage in sexual relations with men and if a man touches such a woman without her consent, it is her fault, the handbook said, clarifying that the reality is “the clothing or attire of a woman neither indicates that she wishes to engage in sexual relations nor is it an invitation to touch her… a man who touches a woman without her consent must not be permitted to take the defence that the woman invited his touch by dressing in a particular way”.