Donald Trump's locker-room talk is uncomfortably familiar in India

"The crude, vulgar, offensive and often sexual trade of comments guys pass to each other, usually in high school locker rooms. Exists solely for the purpose of male comedy and is not meant to be taken seriously.

Jenny overheard me calling her a cum dumpster when I was out with the guys last night. I told her it was just locker room talk and she totally forgot about it."

That was the top search result on "locker room talk" from urban dictionary. I don't know about Jenny but I don't think any woman, whether she has overheard such talk or not, can remotely be okay with it. It's another matter that we are told it's okay.

Before I say anything else, I want to point out that Donald Trump was not in high school when he uttered the words he did. Behaving like a high school-goer is highly unbecoming of a presidential candidate to say the least. But more importantly, whether high-school goer, young or immature, there is no excuse for verbally assaulting someone.

And it's time we took a good hard look at what "locker room talk" really means because isn't that what a lot of guy talk is all about in India too, when the drinks begin to flow?

According to statistics, men routinely over-represent the number of sexual partners they've had. It's clearly about appearing more virile. And while you're at it, throw in a few names to make it seem authentic. What's the harm? If she doesn't hear it, she won't get hurt and nothing can go wrong. Except it can and it very often does.

It was a Trump bragging in some locker room that gave America Brock Turner. It is the nasty guy talk in street corners and living rooms of India that has prompted harassment and stalking of girls, so much so that they choose to drop out of school and are married off by families (according to a recent report from Uttar Pradesh).

Ever wondered why street harassers are often in a group singing songs or passing lewd comments? It is locker room talk turned inside out. Before long, they will act on their own to feel power over others. To me, this is not puzzling at all. I'll go to the extent of saying the roots of rape can be traced to this attitude towards women.

Why? Because such behaviour has two elements that are the very making of hatred, malice and violence. Firstly, your subject is not present in front of you. They are far removed so it is easy to objectify and dehumanise them.

This is the very seed of violence because once you've done this, it becomes easy to harm your subject. You psychologically feel less guilty as they are closer to things than people with attitudes, feelings and lives.

Secondly, men seem to have a strange need to prove their manhood in a constant game of "I am bigger than you" and the way to exert this has traditionally been how much sway they have over women.

In a rather repressive setup like ours (and many others), where a woman has to keep a low profile and say no, this means men actually face more rejection than they'd like to admit.

Off goes their power and they're left strangely swinging between chivalry and dirty talk only to feel a lot of dissonance and frustration. Who do you take it out on? The unattainable "object" of course - a woman.

It is no wonder that there are now many contenders to Delhi when it comes to being labelled the rape capital of India - Rajasthan, UP and Maharashtra have left it far behind, according to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB).

And you see more and more brutal crimes committed in gangs. Even in the Nirbhaya case, the minor admitted to being egged on by others into torturing his victim.

It's certainly a sad scenario for women. But I think it's sadder for men. Their sense of feeling like a man hinges on women (whom they actually have no control over) although being a man entails so much more.

But by far the saddest party is Donald Trump. For all that locker room talk, he is not even able to give Hillary Clinton a real fight.

Also read: All he saw in me was a body part; men like him call 'Grab ‘em by the pussy'