Public Figures Can Take Back Their Illogical Statements By Eating Them

Hate speech is on the rise in India, especially from people in positions of power. While social media outrage is the common reaction to such divisive rhetoric, people usually get away with their statements.

So we are asking them to eat their words

Public servants, political figures, media personalities, film stars, internet celebrities have the power to sway public opinion, but with power comes responsibility. In recent example, Rajith Kumar, a biology professor from Kerala said “women who wear jeans & shirts and dress like men give birth to transgender children.” Not only is this scientifically ridiculous, it questions women’s freedom of choice and expression. In a country where we regularly hear news of rapes and victim blaming, statements like this can only make things worse.

“We will do to Deepika what Lakshman did to Shurpanakha,” said Mahipal Singh Makrana, a member of Rajput Karni Sena, during the Padmaavat fiasco. This made followers of the same ideology as that of Karni Sena to go on a rampage against Deepika Padukone. People burnt her effigies. Her life itself was in danger, all because of an irresponsible statement.

That’s when The Logical Indian released a tongue-in-cheek campaign to urge the people behind these words to take back their statements. Eat Your Words, a novel social movement in which offending words are turned into designer cookies. These are then packaged and hand delivered to the very people in power to whom the words belong; a message from every logical Indian who want those words retracted.

But sorry is often the hardest word, even more so for people in the public eye. Eat Your Words makes apologies a little more accessible by replacing the gravitas of the act with a touch of humour. To show that they are willing to take back the statement, all the recipient has to do is upload a photo of them eating the cookie and share it on social media.

Eat Your Words cookies have already been sent to Salman Khan for his statement that normalises rape, to Sunil Pal for making homophobic statements, Abhijeet Bhattacharya for insulting the economically weaker, Paresh Rawal for suggesting that Arundhati Roy be tied to a jeep and driven around.

If you also believe that it is important for the influential to admit when their words are damaging, please tag your friends in this video and talk about it in the comments. So the next time someone powerful says something that is hurtful, divisive, or just plain illogical, we can tell them that they too need to eat their words.

Watch the video here: https://www.facebook.com/logical.indian/videos/1587245051405208/