Ashamed

This post is in response to my twitter-friend @Sanjana_S's blog post "Shame on you" -a very strongly opinionated piece on what she thought of  the most hienous crime- rape. While commenting on her blog i had the idea of adding a new post here and add the link as comment on here blog. I absolutely refuse to categorize rape as a mere sexual crime, it is something far more heinous than that, the ultimate brutalization and subjugation of the victim as well as her kins. Ever wondered why invading armies, rioters and marauders would do that? Wouldn't it be very difficult to derive sexual pleasure during the mayhem? Definitely, it has to be sumthing other than sex.

Primitive warrior tribes considered women the most prized possession, a symbol of masculinity. If you observe the habits of primates and gorillas,the strongest, meanest and most brutish male of the tribe gets to keep the best of women and largest share of food. The female is the symbol of the alpha male's domination, a reminder to less stronger tribe-members of who is in charge (aan baan shan :p)


Thus a forced sexual intercourse is an attack on the psyche of the victim and her kins, it becomes twice heinous and unfortunate because both sides view the woman not as a person but as an object of honor and supremacy and most importantly as a possession. Of course, no pain can be greater than that of the victim who is violated and goes through immense and mental agony without any fault of hers. And in cases where she has been violated by kin for the very same reason i.e. domination, it assumes a very grotesque form.

Things havent changed significantly in modern times as much as we may want to believe. Beneath our "cultured" demeanor we are still the same warrior tribe that consider woman a trophy. This animal instinct continues to manifests in harassment, molestations and in worst case, rape (mind u there are other categories too, like pedophiles etc ) but in a less overt manner. But then we are no longer military society, there are no invasions, raids etc, at least not in urban centres, not in Delhi which is becoming notorious for sexual crimes. So does that mean that the underlying motives have changed but the behaviour persists ?

Not really. The machismo gene is too deeply ingrained in the collective psyche to remain suppressed by garb of civility. In the final decades of the last century, the movement for empowerment of women had become far too strong to be opposed in any manner, even the most machismo- oriented groups joined the brigade without really accepting them. Worse, they now had women leading the charge. Remember, the infamous Mangalore pub assault episode and the NCW member heading the probe sympathizing with the goons ? The fact remains that empowerment of women in India has not been accepted whole-heartedly by all sections of the Indian society, the molestations and sexual harrasment of every kind are a reflection of this. The unwillingness of the male to accept woman as an equal in all walks of life manifests itself in ways other than groping, feeling up and bottom-pinching, sexual harrasment at workplace are all parts of it.   
We are heading towards a more insecure future for women. On one hand we jump into globalization band wagon,talk of female empowerment,thus encouraging women to take active and equal role in everything and on the other hand we let misogynists go unchecked. If rape is the culmination of this primitive brutality,we come across the early signs of this sickness in lot of people everyday in our lives. We regret, lament and blame our law and order mechanism but we forget that these beasts are amongst us. There is no law or no magical incantation that would change things in a second (or even eons), the only way to check these cimes is it step up the vigil- citizen vigil. Every time i come across news of a sexual crime i find myself wishing i could do something! But lately, i ask myself a couple of questions-
 When was the last time you stopped people from referring to a woman as an object of sexual gratification. When was the last time you acted while a female was being harassed ?