Life of an Indian Teenage Girl

Guilt Activism

"Repost this if you're against r*pe. I can see who all has viewed the story so, if you don't repost I'll lose all respect for you."

"Why isn't anyone talking about this?"

This is not how you turn people into activists. It's not how you get people interested in knowing about problems and to fight against it. You're not supposed to guilt people into doing it.

Spread knowledge. Tell people why it is a problem and then they'll become activists themselves.

I saw the post that I mentioned in the beginning a few days back. I told them why it bothered me. I said that they shouldn't respect me just because I didn't repost something. It didn't have anything to do with the matter. The account probably just made the post to get more reach. Maybe it did but, maybe it didn't. If it had something to do with the matter I would've reposted it. On my own.

The other post that I mentioned is also based on guilt. I have seen so many posts that start or end this way. Ok we get it. It's not a well known issue. So spread it. Don't guilt other people into sharing it.

In conclusion, what I meant is— don't force anyone to repost something, don't say anything that's not necessary to the topic (if it's not necessary then it's better to be removed), you shouldn't bargain to spread information.

It might have sounded like an essay, but this bothered me. I have seen two people that I follow reposting the first post that I mentioned. The first person understood what I said and they took down the story. The second person just replied in a slightly rude manner like, "no one asked you to repost", which is exactly what the post told me to do. What I said to either of them was not a personal attack and I had mentioned that.

They didn't get it I guess. I hope they do one day.

Thank you for reading! Share your thoughts on this in the comments.