A curious thing happens every time a woman decides to go public about the sexual harassment she faced; she is accused of having ulterior motives. “She wants to smear his good name because he dumped her,” or the classic, “She’s just looking for publicity.” It’s has happened in the past with women who accused celebrity Bill Cosby of spiking their drinks and raping them and again when the Harvey Weinstein scandal broke loose. In the first case, these “critics” also went so far as to allege a systematic conspiracy to bring down successful black men. And the pattern repeats with the LSR student on whom the alleged semen-filled balloon was flung. Unless you’ve been living under the proverbial rock for the past couple of days, there’s no way you could have missed the story about a hooligan flinging a semen-filled balloon at a Delhi student. The girl, Tolino Chishi, discussed her ordeal at length in a two-part Instagram post.

People initially reacted with shock and disgust. But eventually, as expected, cynics and guardians of fragile male ego swung into action, doing what they did best: make something that doesn’t concern them about themselves. Some genius (possibly an out-of-work engineer) went on to discuss that the diameter of an average Holi balloon is 40-100mm, which could hold 268ml of liquid. And that a man can only ejaculate 2-5ml semen per ejaculation. I’m going to leave that Tweet right here for you.

Editor of the OpIndia Nupur J Sharma also went on a bizarre rant about having 100s of men fill a single balloon. Again, I’ll leave the Tweet right here where you can see it.

Most of these attacks seem to follow a pattern. The moment a woman makes an allegation, the first line of response is to:

• Immediately assume she’s doing it for attention

• Have complete faith the accused’s innocence (not just to play devil’s advocate)

• Throw aspersions on the accuser’s character

• Rant about how ‘Feminism is cancer’

In the Cosby and Weinstein case, there was a distinct accused person with whom their sympathies lay with. What’s mind-boggling about Tolino’s case is that trolls are supporting a faceless, nameless hooligan who in all probability did throw a semen-filled balloon. Such rabid responses explain why women are not forthcoming about stories of their sexual assaults. The knee-jerk reaction to any allegation by any woman these days is an acerbic attack on her character and her logic. And even this time round, trolls haven’t disappointed us with how they handled Tolino’s experience. Here’s my rebuttal to the three biggest questions posed by trolls to discredit the girl.

“How is it possible to fill the balloon with that much semen?”

Agreed that an average human ejaculate is only 2-5 ml (a hat tip to the gentleman who enlightened us). But where did she say that the contents of balloon was all semen? It’s perfectly possible to dilute it with water. The outcome is just as ghastly. Nupur J Sharma said it will take 100s of men to fill one balloon. That’s pushing it a little. Going by the helpful gentleman’s data, it will only take 10 men. And whoever said perverts don’t work together for a cause? Ask the 50 people who molested NRI women outside the Taj Hotel in 2008.

“How does she know it is semen?”

She has made it very clear in her post that the liquid dried white on her pants and that the liquid had a distinct smell. We’re no scientists but it’s an established fact that semen contains ammonia, which explains the bleach-like smell. But if the purpose of the question is to shame her for knowing what semen smells like, you are part of the problem not the solution.

“Who would take the pains to do that?”

Are you doubting the perseverance of an average Indian pervert? Not long ago, a dude was caught with a camera phone embedded into his chappal. He used it to take upskirt pictures by placing the footwear right where the women were standing. He also had a special steel cover built to protect it. That’s how industrious our perverts are. And that’s just scratching the surface.

I’m not saying the girl couldn’t be wrong. It could just be holy water-filled balloon for all you know! The point is that why don’t we use our scepticism to good use and be unbiased instead. It’s troubling that our immediate response is to doubt the victim instead of seeing whether there is a kernel of truth in her allegations.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Mar 01, 2018 08:48 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).