The silence is deafening, but it is also welcoming.Last Friday, a foreign national smacked a police officer on duty on the face apparently because he did not allow her to attend a book release event. A video showing the incident partially was widely viewed. The woman fiddles with a phone for a few moments before suddenly smacking the man on the face and then walks off in a huff after arguing with another man.Read: Woman slaps security officer for denying entry to an even attended by Manmohan SinghThe national media took a couple of days to pick up on the story, and merely reported on it.Contrast this with the tenor of the reportage when in May, a video emerged showing a traffic police officer throw a brick at a woman motorcyclist. The national television media descended into a frenzy that was heightened because of the presence of a child with the woman. That the cop was castigated for his actions was to put it mildly. Within hours, the cop was suspended.An audio clipping that emerged later gave a fuller picture of what had transpired. The woman had told the media that the cop had demanded a bribe from her. However, there is nothing in the verbal exchange recorded in the audio clipping to suggest that the cop had demanded a bribe. While she loudly abused him, he repeatedly asked for her license and documents and told her she could pay the fine in court.In the recent case of the foreign national, there has been little outrage. While that is a welcome development – most reports are just that, straightforward reports that tell the public what transpired, without opinion or editorializing – it does not appear to come for the right reasons.Our social attitude towards women is simply mind-boggling – legitimate assertion of one’s individuality or rights invites backlash in society. But the media can understand women’s assertion only when it comes to resisting sexual assault or molestation. Other kinds of assertion – such as questioning the government’s focus on women in sterilization programmes – are simply not on the radar.What explains the lack of outrage (which is good media ethic) when it comes to random acts of physical violence perpetrated by women, is that the media seems to be at a loss. It does not really know how to respond because such a woman does not fit into the media’s (and sometimes society’s) ready-to-use stereotypes of women – the valiant woman resisting molestation or assault, the woman who achieved great things despite being a woman, the modern woman who works long hours just like men in corporate jobs, the homely goddess-like all-sacrificing mother, or the helpless illiterate rural woman dying on a hospital table after a sterilization surgery.But the answer is simple – get out of the stereotypes. See women as human beings who have a functioning brain and capacity for thought. Discuss unequal social relations between men and women, and also other wider gender issues without resorting to the blinkers of a 'sexy story'. But also recognize that cruelty, anger, irrationality are human traits from which women are not immune.