Rape Culture: Ask Indian women
As much as Indians love to romanticise the idea of being a woman and putting them on pedestal, why is the number of rapes in India continue to rise per day?
Indian society is arguably the most patriarchal society in the world. I am not denying the fact that women in other countries do not fall prey to it but the way rape culture is prevalent in India is terrifying. The patriarchal structure we are born in makes it more than just scary. Men being the head of the society and authoritative of abuse, one can only imagine the role of womxn in the institutions like marriage and family.
It’s important to note here that I’m going to talk about heterosexual cis women only because if I include Trans and Non-binary women too, this article is never going to end.
India is the first country to step up while romanticising the idea of being a woman. The society loves to put women on a pedestal and tying them to the chains of various roles and depriving them of an individual identity. While nobody would say that “rape should happen” because obviously that would be too controversial, they would most often than not turn the act of rape to blame women. There would be statements like “Woman shouldn’t wear short clothes because it encourages rape” or “women shouldn’t go to a certain place at a certain time” OR the worst of all- “ Men can’t control their hormones, it’s natural for them to have a sexual desire”. So conclusively, while the Indian Legal system is too messed up to provide justice to the victims of rape, the moral obligations, too, are dying slowly and gradually.
Its important to understand that rape doesn’t happen because men “have sexual desires”, but because they see this act as authoritative and use it to assert their power. Men continuously feel the need to remind us that they are superior than us. The mentality that they have the power to “ruin our life” is what keeeps them going. This happens because the female body is seen as a spomething that needs to be “protected” at all costs. They want control over our bodies and assert their power one way or the other.
Men and women are brought up in the same society but in total different ways. Nivedita menon, a renowned scholar, professor and writer of the book, ‘Seeing Like A Feminist’, explains that no one is a man or a woman but the way they are treated and brought up is what makes them either. People are just born with different genitals but the way they act, dress, behave, talk, think and behave, whether it is “masculinity” or “feminity” comes up from the society and thus the socially constructed terms- ‘MAN’ and ‘WOMAN’.
Therefore, its absolutely clear that society again and again implies that their bodies or genitals are something that needs to be “saved and protected” and men are both saviours and tormentors. On the other hand, men are brought up completely differently to walk, talk and behave assertively and “manly” as they are the ones with control.
Not that they don’t suffer from “patriarchy” but again no one should/can deny that men are in a position of privilege than women and if they claim themselves to be the “good ones”, it’s about time that they acknowledge their privilege rather than outrightly denying it.
