Sri Lankan Women in Butt-shorts

A YouTuber recently published a video in which he had recorded the reactions of Sri Lankans to a girl wearing shorts. At the beginning of the video he explains that it is a social experiment to see whether Sri Lankan men are vulgar (“val” is the Sinhala word he uses) or not. The video featured the girl walking in a few different places- a beach, a town, a residential area etc.- and the men who ogle at her and catcall her. The YouTuber himself walks a few paces behind her, posing as her boyfriend, and confronting the people who ogle and catcall.

In case the following video-link does not work for you, following is my description of the entire video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4XfVDq0Row

The footage starts with a man of around fifty or sixty years of age turning around to ogle at the model, Shenaya. Ashane, the YouTuber confronts him and the man claims to not have stared at the girl. The next person to be featured is a young security guard who simply steals a stare at Shenaya. The ‘boyfriend’ goes at this man demanding him to admit that he stared at the girl. Shenaya, then, is seen on a beach and she is on the phone this time. A middle-aged man walks up to her, stands a few feet away from her and gives her a slight wave of the hand and a discreet smile. The ‘boyfriend’ does not intervene this time. Later, the duo is once again walking in what seems to be a residential area where a man stands with his phone to his ear. He says ‘hullohh’ at Shenaya and Ashane snarls at him too. Then the two of them are seen walking on the pavement of a busy street. A group of well-dressed young men walking past them stare and her and say “wow!” at which Ashane confronts them and demands why they said that. Two of the men leave one of them behind answering Ashane. The young man left behind falters saying that he does not say that and says “samaavenna”, sorry multiple times. He explains that his friend had squeezed his shoulder and that he had said “Oww”. Next, Shenaya passes two men sitting on a bench and one of them whistles at her. Ashane confronts this man who tells Ashane to get lost, “Yanda yaaluwaa”. The man also pushes Ashane by the shoulder at which Ashane is pulled away by Shenaya who quickly says “hari hari”, okay okay, to pacify the man. Then Shenaya is at Galle Face Green where she alternatively sits and walks around with two men sitting close at hand, one eating an ice cream. At two instances one of the men is seen commenting to the other and making faces, after having looked at Shenaya as she sits and walks around. He also stares at her back as she sits down. Then again the two are walking on a pavement, Ashane behind Shenaya, when a young man ogles at Shenaya. Ashane, once again confronts him saying “why?” and he replies that “she is so hot”. He also says “I look at everybody” and “that’s the way it is”. The next scene is another street where another young man walking away from the girl looks behind at her. Ashane snaps at him but the man does not reply so Ashane moves on. The last is a man of around fifty or sixty years of age. This man plainly and very obviously ogles at her. When Ashane confronts him, he says “I can look at her, can’t I?” and “I have a right to look at anyone I wish to look at.” This is the whole of the video described in my words.

My first reaction was “Thumbs up, Ashane”. Then I shared this video with a caption, congratulating him and adding that he should also have gathered footage on women being abused on public transport.

I shall now proceed to list out the arguments of my fellow Facebookers on my post on this video. I shall be summarizing the comments and commenting on the comments again at the end of my article. The comments that are either in Sinhala or a blend of Sinhala and English, I have given rough translations to; otherwise these comments are unedited. I am Nati on Facebook and following are myself and my friends arguing on the post:

Chathura: disagree [sic]

Nati:  why?

Chathura: What she is wearing is not from our culture 😊 I would have looked at the same way and it's ma right either. [sic]

Nati: Of course it is your right to stare and catcall. And yes she is not wearing anything from the Sri Lankan culture. BUT the people of Sri Lanka claim to be Buddhist and to have a great culture where they respect women. I see nothing respectful in staring at exposed legs and catcalling. Do you think you are cultured if you say that you would certainly have stared at this girl? Of course I agree that this girl is not wearing something from the Sri Lankan culture. But would you say the same of a white skinned foreigner in the same circumstances?

Hahha you are only another hypocrite 🙂 I hope you learn from my reply.

Chathura: I don't think so 😊😊 respect you can't demand you need to deserve 😊

Nati: So like a “good Sri Lankan” you judge the level of respect called for from clothes? That does not make you less “val” if you claim that you’re tempted to stare at women wearing shorts. Respect anyway deserves to be meted out to people who are good in character. And character is not something that is measured from what people wear. If you respect people based on what they wear, what clothes they are comfortable wearing, you are pathetic. And remember. “Good Sri Lankan women” also wear sarees that expose a strip of their tummy. They also used to wear redda-hatta which also exposed a strip of tummy. So character can’t be judged by what people wear.

Chathura: hard to read long comments nanga. 😊 long Comments suggest you need lot of points to justify your statement 😊

Nati: It proves that I HAVE a lot of points to support my view 😊 you only have “culture”.

Dulinda: mate. Go to sigiriya and tell me how those pics depict clothes from your culture and denim shorts ain't please

Nati: Gooooooood onnnnne!

Chathura: ha ha ha here is a gudguy [sic] coming in 😊 culture is transformed by the time.that time it was ok but recent it was not just a simple understanding how ever I don't have big deal with that dress but I think that video is inappropriate 😊

Nati: Just taking a moment to note that You didn’t answer any of my arguments hiding under the guise of not wanting to read long comments 😂

Dulinda: You just said in your first comment. " What she is wearing is not from our culture". That was your basis of argument and now you are saying its not a big deal. Bro either you are evolving too fast or you are contradicting your own comments!

Chathura: well if there is problem in the society need to find a answer need to find why this happened Critizing is not gonna work. When whole the society move from light to the dark . It's like finding democray like in our a country where half the population struggling fullfill basics needs

Chathura: comment made on the desagreement. My concern is this video is inappropriate 😊 I think people like you are highly appreciated sri lanka woman need people like you 😁 [sic]

Nati: I agree with you in that respect aiya! 😊 we should indeed find an answer to the question, why people who claim to have such a great history and culture can’t help catcalling women:) you’re right there.

Nandula: Seriously just dismiss yourself :P

Chathura: not required! Could you come to uni wearing a short like in this video ? 😊wanna find out how uni boys be like [sic]

Nati: The point is not wearing shorts and looking for reactions if you’re uncomfortable in them. The point is if you’re comfortable in shorts you should be able to wear them without being catcalled or lustily looked at. It might be normal of any male or female to be attracted to exposed bodies BUT the point is that Sri Lankan’s claim that this country hails from a spotless history and has a clean white culture. You can’t say that if people react to shorts this way. The problem is the contradiction between people’s reactions and what this country is said to be.

Chathura: so please all girls kindly wear shorts along with aunties ,things will be normal progressively😊😊 [sic]

Nati: *sigh* You really will not get the point I guess.

Nandula: this is the point when you just stop talking :P In case you didn't get it already :P

Anjuli: Honestly we can cover up to our toes and yet we have to go through the same thing..No matter what a woman wear , the right amount of respect she deserves will not be given as long as narrow minded and disrespectful people are around. Hopefully we can actually practice this "culture" we speak of one day.

Dinuke: The explanation to this conundrum is actually a very simple one! The human brain has a tendency to see patterns everywhere. To fit everything in our surroundings into a frame that we’ve built based on prior acquired knowledge. However, the flip side of this is that we tend to be uneasy with chaos and chance! (There is a wealth of literature on this!) Meaning if we see something out of place (eg: A dog with five legs, a pink car, a dwarf) our autonomic systems direct us to observe the phenomenon and process the piece of information to fit within the preconceived notions. Thus, to the untrained mind checking out women wearing shorts can happen due to two reasons. 1) Because the mind is not trained to see a woman in shorts (this can happen to any one of us due to lack of knowledge) 2) the sexual arousal created by our autonomic system (Reacting to this through catcalling is a form of perversion!). Upon observation of the case studies in the video you see both these categories of folk in it!
NOTE: I personally have nothing against women wearing shorts!

Nati: I agree to everything about your comment aiya. Yes there are both these categories in this video.

Chathura: ohoo here is an another guy coming in :D but i know you very well :D :D

Dinuke: චතු පුතේ, අර Nati යි දුලින්ද යි ☝️ අහපු ප්‍රස්න වලට උත්තර දුන්නොත් මාත් එනව ඔයාගෙ පිලට! :V

Translation: I shall move over to your side if you answer the questions posed by Nati and Dulinda.

Chathura: not required .. you know i love to see you with the opponent side :) [sic]

Kusal: ලස්සන ගෑනු ළමෙක් දිහා බලන එක වරදක් ද😮

Translation: Is it wrong to look at a beautiful girl?

Nati: Balana eka nemei catcall karana ekai varada. Lassana gaanu lamayekta paare yanna baane.

Translation: It is not the looking that is wrong, it’s the catcalling that is. A beautiful girl cannot walk on the road.

Kusal: මෙ‍‍හෙමයි මට නම් මේක දිහා බැලුවා ම පේන්නෙ ඇදුම පමණක් බටහිර වෙච්ච සහ නාගරික වැඩවසම් ආකල්ප තියෙන පිරිස සහ සිංහල ග්‍රාමීය ආකල්ප තියෙන දෙපිරිස අතර ගැටුමක් විදියට. මොකද දෙක ම වෙනත් කිව්වට දෙක ම එක වගේ. බටහිර රටක මේක මහබොලද දෙයක් විදියට පෙනෙයි කළොත්.

Translation: I see this as a confrontation between urban people wearing westernized clothing and people with Sinhala rural values. Because these are both similar though they are said to be different. If done in a Western country this will seem a very silly thing to have done.

Nati: Eka aththa. Batagira rataka summer ekedi meka karanna giyoth ivarayak nathi vei 😆 e ratavalath mehema minissu innavane. Prashne thiyenne Mata, lankaave minissu kiyanavane egollanta niyama haditaavak etc thiyanava kiyala. Ekai 😂

Translation: That is true. If this is to be done during Summer in a Western country, there will be no end to it. There are people like this in those countries as well. The issue I have is, Lankans claim to be well-brought-up etc.

Sahana: His copying the sm [sic] experiments they do in other countries ! I saw a few like this filmed In India !
But it’s good that he took the initiative to do this here !
This is exactly why we can’t wear what we want to wear 😂

Nati: Exactly dude.

Sahana: I wear a saree and in the bus people keep staring and I’m like wteva [sic] 😑 weirdos !!!!

Nati: There you go 🤷🏻‍♀️

Udara: Let's continue this social experiment akki. Pls come to uni wearing something like that.. you have my fullest support 😂 #nohardfeelings

Nati: Exactly Udara. We can’t wear what makes us comfortable in this country. Butt shorts don’t make me comfy so I don’t wear them in public but it’s not like that for this girl. She’s comfy in it. But she can’t wear it bcs she is catcalled.

Thrimal: This is not the way to conduct a social experiment. Looking at an exceptionally dressed girl on road is common to all men on earth. He should have tackled the harassment which is happening in busses, trains and public places. He has followed an easy method to get attraction from young girls and market himself. As per rumours now already one security guy has lost his job due to this comedy. What is he trying to prove here? Has anybody forcefully look [sic] at this girl? They looked at the body parts what she is showing outside. Why does she expose them outside if she doesn't want others to see??? I can't understand.. This won't be a magic if many girls are wearing same. But in SL it is not so common and people look at different things of course. As an example we won't specially look at a girl wearing like this in Europe (in summer) cos we won't be having time for any other thing if we do such. Cos it's very common there. Is this a social experiment? This guy should have addressed the harassment for this to be a social experiment rather than doing a cheap joke like this.

Nati: I think it is a very appropriate experiment to show that the people who claim to be good and cultured look at girls lustily. The worst is when they choose to catcall. Even when they stop only at looking it goes to show that they are not as religious as they claim to be in Sri Lanka 😂 
That is my point.

Thrimal: No nangi, this guy doesn't know what a social experiment is. Social researchers work under certain rules and ethics which this guy has know [sic] idea. He is just going after you tube views to earn money. That's all. This will happen even if a guy go [sic] to a public place wearing a towel. It is about being odd under a situation. Of course girls face lot of difficulties in public places and it's not what this person is showing off. Educated crowd should not praise this kind of jokes.

Chathura: gud [sic] stuff. For taking some time and typed this comment😍

Nati: But I feel that this is a good trailer (if you say it’s not an experiment; call it what you will) of how Sri Lankans are not as cultured as they claim to be.

Isuru: my opinion vis a vis this social experiment is that this society has been deteriorated badly.now it is difficult and nay well nigh impossible to reform as it was before..
if we take that long standing culture , it is sth that people use to elevate the current position..if we take religous aspects to re-think about those controversial issues wht we can realize is that we have been dehumanised...
when we think about china and japan any girl can go any where in any dress..
the available facts suggest that the religion is not on the par with the people's attitude.
if we need to stop this the perpetrators should be crucified or decapitated as we did in the colonial period..
the more we cradle the perpetrators the more they commit crimes......

[sic]

Senith: This is not sri lanka but see these women ..Dont consider this one as rude !

[Insert: a photo of two aged, white skinned women staring after a girl wearing a see-through cover-up to a bikini.]

Nati: True. I hope they don’t claim that they have a culture that says otherwise 😂

Isuru:

 the other facet of this issue is none other than the girls trying to arouse sexual feelings of male by wearing short dresses...even in buses, as u mentioned earlier , those girls are observable but it is wrong to lay their sins on others'shoulders becoz no one else but they should be responsible for themselves.if they want others to be attracted by their beauty we have no alternatives for it rather than being silent.
but far more horrible thing is that they tend to shout in public when they are noticed by other commuters..
i would say that he gets caught by her knot..
in this way we can scrutinise this matter.
wht i need to say is that it is wrong to lay one's sins only one one's shoulder.

[sic]

Nati: If you are sexually aroused by seeing girls in butt shorts, the issue is with you. You are the kind that also says that rape is the victim’s fault. It is not. People need to have control over themselves. It’s their fault that they don’t.

Isuru:

 not that i am sexually aroused bt i have pointed out the people's stance on this issue.....
in my perspective any one has a right to wear anything..
the person's attitude determines how he thinks about the world..

nooo as i mentioned earlier the perpetrators should be punished....
i am not favourable in them at all...

[sic]

Nandula: The best part is the way those perverts try desperately to defend themselves :P :P

Nati: Yes Mish that’s what I hate toooo 🤢

The gist of this conversation:
I keep trying to point out that if Sri Lankans claim that they have a spotless history and culture related to Buddhism, they can't also claim that looking at women lustily and/or catcalling is fine, because Lord Buddha has preached that thought has as much weight as action. This argument of mine and of Dulinda, Isuru and Nandula is not addressed at all by the people who are against this video. Instead, these people attack the fact that this social experiment has not been done according to the ethics of conducting a social experiment. While this may be true-because the subjects in the video are not aware that their actions are being recorded- it does not negate the fact that Sri Lankan people are not as cultured as they claim to be. The opponents of this argument have one main argument in common: it is, that the clothes that Shenaya wears is not on par with the culture of Sri Lanka. That is true. Butt shorts are not something that hails from the Sri Lankan culture. However, it is apparent that even when women wear sarees (which the Sri Lankan culture approves) and clothes that cover the entire body, women are still looked at lustily and catcalled, as Anjuli and Sahana have pointed out in the conversation. 
I shall conclude by saying that my point of argument is that Sri Lanka is not a country that is as cultured as it claims to be and that people should have the freedom to wear what they want to wear, in public, without being catcalled or offensively stared at. 

Well, it is for the reader to answer the question posed by Ashane at the beginning of the video: if Sri Lankan men are perverted or not. I leave you at that. Let us meet again on my next article.
P.S. My reaction is still "Thumbs up, Ashane."