Rape Cultures in India
- Pratiksha Baxi
Pratiksha Baxi, in her article, Rape Cultures in India, shines a light on the "rape culture" of our country. She speaks about how, despite countless campaigns and movements, women are made the target of the unfulfilled, animalistic lust of these heterosexist men, to whom the city belongs.
She says the city belongs to them, because the city planners have designed the city to be a perfectly unsafe place for women - with the broken streetlights, dark alleys - which have made it tenfold times easier to nab a woman from the street, lock her and assault her in a moving vehicle, which has, for some twisted reason, become an aesthetic for these people.
the judiciary, which exists to provide justice to these survivors, unfortunately views rape as sex, instead of an act of sexual violence. It is seen as an "act of aberrant lust, pathological sexual desire or isolated sexual deviancy."
Politicians have repeatedly used a rape as a political tool. Their concerns have, more often than not, been less than genuine. Rarely have they cared about the survivor as much as they have about their vote bank.
Instead of helping the survivor recover from the physical and mental trauma, the environment is made toxic for them. often, they are blamed for the rape. What they were wearing at the time, who they were with, where they were, what they were doing, and their character, are questions more important than "who were they? where are they now? what punishment are they being given?".
A rape is seen a matter of shame for the survivor, rather than for the perpetrator. the face of the survivor is thrown around in the media, but the face of the rapist is always protected.
Rape is also often seen as a tool to silence women. Since women are always supposed to be subdued, silent, and not have an opinion, any woman who defies this deserves to be raped, of course.
Why are these rapists left scot-free so often? Is a survivor's life really not worth it? The fact that these people have been getting away with their brutal acts for years is the reason why rape culture and sexual violence has come to be so celebrated in our country. They are the reason why a rapist is not scared before attacking a potential victim. They were let go for their acts, why won't he?
- Pratiksha Baxi
Pratiksha Baxi, in her article, Rape Cultures in India, shines a light on the "rape culture" of our country. She speaks about how, despite countless campaigns and movements, women are made the target of the unfulfilled, animalistic lust of these heterosexist men, to whom the city belongs.
She says the city belongs to them, because the city planners have designed the city to be a perfectly unsafe place for women - with the broken streetlights, dark alleys - which have made it tenfold times easier to nab a woman from the street, lock her and assault her in a moving vehicle, which has, for some twisted reason, become an aesthetic for these people.
the judiciary, which exists to provide justice to these survivors, unfortunately views rape as sex, instead of an act of sexual violence. It is seen as an "act of aberrant lust, pathological sexual desire or isolated sexual deviancy."
Politicians have repeatedly used a rape as a political tool. Their concerns have, more often than not, been less than genuine. Rarely have they cared about the survivor as much as they have about their vote bank.
Instead of helping the survivor recover from the physical and mental trauma, the environment is made toxic for them. often, they are blamed for the rape. What they were wearing at the time, who they were with, where they were, what they were doing, and their character, are questions more important than "who were they? where are they now? what punishment are they being given?".
A rape is seen a matter of shame for the survivor, rather than for the perpetrator. the face of the survivor is thrown around in the media, but the face of the rapist is always protected.
Rape is also often seen as a tool to silence women. Since women are always supposed to be subdued, silent, and not have an opinion, any woman who defies this deserves to be raped, of course.
Why are these rapists left scot-free so often? Is a survivor's life really not worth it? The fact that these people have been getting away with their brutal acts for years is the reason why rape culture and sexual violence has come to be so celebrated in our country. They are the reason why a rapist is not scared before attacking a potential victim. They were let go for their acts, why won't he?
No comments:
Post a Comment