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Well, there has been another rape. Another life is marred and another woman is traumatized and hospitalized. And, expectedly, and to some extent boringly, the social media is abuzz with angry comments and suggestions about neutering the rapists, hanging them and other such harsh punishments. But, wait a minute, am I the only one getting a sense of déjà vu?!
Before you stone me for being apathetic and cruel towards the pitiable plight of an innocent victim, please read on.
I may not be a great savant in psychology or sociology. I don’t boast of any qualifications necessary to convey my opinions on such sensitive topics either. But as a simple human being, and a member of the gender that is capable of committing this heinous crime, I take the liberty to put my views here.
All of us want to curb rapes. Agreed. All of us want women to be respected. No doubts about that. We all want mothers to teach their sons to treat a female as their equal. Agreed totally. We don’t want a woman to be treated as a mere object of sexual pleasure. Er… are we sure about this?!
While the parents may succeed in teaching a boy to respect a female and see beyond her physical form and treat her as a human being, what are we, as a society, doing?! Once you are out on the streets, sleaze and skin-shows pummel the young minds. Movie stars flaunt their powdered cleavages and toned torsos to sell anything – from cosmetics to cameras to chocolates. Television and movies are no better either. Buy a chocolate, a woman is going to swoon on you, buy a perfume, any woman will shed her clothes to be your playmate. Literally, any men’s product in the market today – shave gel to shirts – is being sold as an assured bait to seduce a woman.
And, the commercials for women’s products are not better, either. We teach our girls that being dark-skinned is something they should be ashamed of. A woman is not supposed to have dark color ANYWHERE in her physique, except her hair. A topic as private and sensitive for a woman as a menstrual cycle is being openly commercialized on television and the sanitary napkins are just short of a live demonstration. There are so many commercials that project a woman as nothing more than her curvaceous physique. Tell me if I had missed out any commercial that makes a man think of a woman as respectable human being.
And, by the way, which female are we taking as role model and projecting in the media? Rani Lakshmi of Jhansi? Kiran Bedi, the first female IPS officer? Sunitha Krishnan, a female who is silently working against sex-trafficking? You are a fool if you think that these are the females that are revered and idolized by the media. We worship Poonam Pandeys, Veena Maliks and Sunny Leones. Some regularly visited mail-service-provider websites are volunteering with videos that can enlighten you with information such as the reasons behind Sunny Leone becoming a porn-star, or how Sherlyn Chopra became the first Indian woman to pose nude in Playboy magazine! For that matter, what relevance does a model like Archana Vijaya or a Mandira Bedi hold to comment about Cricket? If women are to be encouraged for Cricket commentary, why not ask a Diana Edulji or an Anjum Chopra – both eminent players of the sport – to take up commentary and inspire more women to play the sport?!
Another question I find so unanswerable is that, if China, a country much larger than India, in terms of area and population, or more relevantly in terms of mobile and internet connections, can block pornography, why can’t India do that?! I don’t think there can be two thoughts when it comes to facing the fact that nothing degrades a woman like pornography, by projecting her as an ordinary sex-toy. Sex, a basic process of reproduction and sustenance of our species is now being touted as a mere source of entertainment. From movies to movie songs we have started accepting a woman’s organs being measured and described in detail. Venereal topics have become venerated.
My senseless and irrelevant point amidst all this razzamatazz and buzz - that might die in a day or two, only to be revived when the next woman falls prey – about killing the rapists is, let us all start doing something in real life, rather than simply venting out our futile anger in social media. It can be as simple an act as that of stopping a friend, who wolf-whistles when a woman passes by. Or it can be a noble act of joining an NGO that works against human trafficking. Let us raise voice first against all those media-supported commercials that exploit the feminine physique for pecuniary benefits. Let us all learn to raise voice when a woman is harassed in a bus we travel, or at the office that we work, or simply in the road that we walk.
As long as we don’t do anything to prevent such things happening in real life, I don’t think we have any moral rights to condemn or raise voice against the rapists, because a person who abets the crime is equally guilty as the one that perpetrates it. And, we all, including the person writing this, are as guilty as the rapists, because we have done nothing so far to save a woman from being exploited!
Ashok Krishna
Before you stone me for being apathetic and cruel towards the pitiable plight of an innocent victim, please read on.
I may not be a great savant in psychology or sociology. I don’t boast of any qualifications necessary to convey my opinions on such sensitive topics either. But as a simple human being, and a member of the gender that is capable of committing this heinous crime, I take the liberty to put my views here.
All of us want to curb rapes. Agreed. All of us want women to be respected. No doubts about that. We all want mothers to teach their sons to treat a female as their equal. Agreed totally. We don’t want a woman to be treated as a mere object of sexual pleasure. Er… are we sure about this?!
While the parents may succeed in teaching a boy to respect a female and see beyond her physical form and treat her as a human being, what are we, as a society, doing?! Once you are out on the streets, sleaze and skin-shows pummel the young minds. Movie stars flaunt their powdered cleavages and toned torsos to sell anything – from cosmetics to cameras to chocolates. Television and movies are no better either. Buy a chocolate, a woman is going to swoon on you, buy a perfume, any woman will shed her clothes to be your playmate. Literally, any men’s product in the market today – shave gel to shirts – is being sold as an assured bait to seduce a woman.
And, the commercials for women’s products are not better, either. We teach our girls that being dark-skinned is something they should be ashamed of. A woman is not supposed to have dark color ANYWHERE in her physique, except her hair. A topic as private and sensitive for a woman as a menstrual cycle is being openly commercialized on television and the sanitary napkins are just short of a live demonstration. There are so many commercials that project a woman as nothing more than her curvaceous physique. Tell me if I had missed out any commercial that makes a man think of a woman as respectable human being.
And, by the way, which female are we taking as role model and projecting in the media? Rani Lakshmi of Jhansi? Kiran Bedi, the first female IPS officer? Sunitha Krishnan, a female who is silently working against sex-trafficking? You are a fool if you think that these are the females that are revered and idolized by the media. We worship Poonam Pandeys, Veena Maliks and Sunny Leones. Some regularly visited mail-service-provider websites are volunteering with videos that can enlighten you with information such as the reasons behind Sunny Leone becoming a porn-star, or how Sherlyn Chopra became the first Indian woman to pose nude in Playboy magazine! For that matter, what relevance does a model like Archana Vijaya or a Mandira Bedi hold to comment about Cricket? If women are to be encouraged for Cricket commentary, why not ask a Diana Edulji or an Anjum Chopra – both eminent players of the sport – to take up commentary and inspire more women to play the sport?!
Another question I find so unanswerable is that, if China, a country much larger than India, in terms of area and population, or more relevantly in terms of mobile and internet connections, can block pornography, why can’t India do that?! I don’t think there can be two thoughts when it comes to facing the fact that nothing degrades a woman like pornography, by projecting her as an ordinary sex-toy. Sex, a basic process of reproduction and sustenance of our species is now being touted as a mere source of entertainment. From movies to movie songs we have started accepting a woman’s organs being measured and described in detail. Venereal topics have become venerated.
My senseless and irrelevant point amidst all this razzamatazz and buzz - that might die in a day or two, only to be revived when the next woman falls prey – about killing the rapists is, let us all start doing something in real life, rather than simply venting out our futile anger in social media. It can be as simple an act as that of stopping a friend, who wolf-whistles when a woman passes by. Or it can be a noble act of joining an NGO that works against human trafficking. Let us raise voice first against all those media-supported commercials that exploit the feminine physique for pecuniary benefits. Let us all learn to raise voice when a woman is harassed in a bus we travel, or at the office that we work, or simply in the road that we walk.
As long as we don’t do anything to prevent such things happening in real life, I don’t think we have any moral rights to condemn or raise voice against the rapists, because a person who abets the crime is equally guilty as the one that perpetrates it. And, we all, including the person writing this, are as guilty as the rapists, because we have done nothing so far to save a woman from being exploited!
Ashok Krishna
A very very relevant article. And I am so glad that a man wrote this. Our society should make a collective move against this blatant degradation of women in the entertainment media. Enough with this hypocrisy!
ReplyDeleteThank you, dear sister. I have decided to raise my voice against the media-sponsored exploitation of women. Hoping to change at least a couple of people! :-)
DeleteNazreen, you think all men are useless ?
DeleteGreat article Ashok Krishna. Really women are seen as a marketable commodity. Society has a responsibilty also in these happenings.
Safarulla
Thanks, sir.
Delete