New Delhi, June 16 -- Retro is not always what it is made out to be. I am thinking about the old days when we early feminists had to learn to understand the all-pervasive misogyny which existed before we could even attempt to tackle it. And it was not easy.

The 1970s were the days when men had their "locker room jokes" and casual misogyny was dismissed as "boys being boys". When consent was an unknown word. When film heroes stalked and harassed women on the street and it was called "eve teasing". When comedians made jokes about their mothers and people laughed. When "eve teasers" could harass women with impunity because their clothing meant they were "asking for it".

Those were the days when films lauded patriarchal fathers who punished...