Rape Culture

K Ganesh writes about the victim shaming culture in India and how society at large looks down upon rape victims as though it was their fault that they got raped and that they had asked for it with that attire or shade of lipstick or the drink that they had or even the time they stepped out of house.

This Blog post talks about the issue of Rape culture and how it should be addressed more often on a serious note. We all know about the instances and emotions that the rape victims go through and also the harsh reality of the type of statements or questioning rape victims go through post rape and how horrendous it sounds to the victim. There’s enough statistical data to prove the number of events of rape and the negligence that we show towards such a horrific crime.  Rape culture has made people less sensitive towards the victims and survivor. It has made it easier to accuse them for something which shouldn’t have happened to them no matter what. As a society we should raise the right questions and these very questions often captures the essence of the whole idea of rape culture in the simplest way. The statements that the ideal modern patriarch raises may sound normal to the society, so normal that they find it just and reasonable to question the behaviour of the victim but why is it that there’s always less light thrown on the rapist when he/she deserves to be the only one with accusable behaviour? Why do we have to objectify women with their clothes? Who decides how short her skirt or pants should be or how deep her neck line should be? We definitely have instances where 6-month-old babies have gotten raped. For that instance, we have had case of animals like cows and dogs getting raped as well. Sure. It definitely was the animal’s fault to roam around naked at that time. What crime did the 6-month-old do that she had to go through inhuman pain at such a small age? Consent. That is something which we fail to understand, most of us subtly refuse to believe its existence through our everyday behaviour. Rape victims are further demoralized by the society when they are questioned or addressed during the court trials. Horrific and graphic questions are often raised by the court proceedings that most of the victims refuse to go and file a case.

The society looks down upon rape victims as though it was their fault that they got raped and that they had asked for it with that attire or shade of lipstick or the drink that they had or even the time they stepped out of house. We definitely have a lot of laws and rules that intend to protect the victims but to access those rights the victims have to go through a strenuous process at the end of which they feel further more humiliated and disgusted due to the societal reactions. Rape culture does not just stop with victim abuse. It also includes the normalisation of rape towards certain communities or amongst certain relationships as well as the innuendos and jokes that are insensitively cracked. Men are affected in this case; it is general idea or concept that men enjoy getting raped. Consent is an idea that is unisexual. Due to this way of thinking men rarely speak out about their abuse. It still seems highly illogical to question and blame the victim for getting raped but when we try to understand where this has its roots, we have one answer. The patriarchal society. Rape is generally bound to happen to a woman and she is asked to accept her fate and the things that are done to her as they are ‘normal’. In recent times with the rise of feminism we have started to question the way things work for women and that’s where we have started to address these issues.

It is never the victim’s fault. Let us not grant the rapist an incentive to rape with such notions and ideas. Only those people who have gone through rape know how mentally and physically challenging it is to overcome the pain. To some extent one can cure the physical pain but the mental pain is hard to recover from. The thought of someone violation the right you have towards your own body, someone going against something that has been your very own material in this world, the feeling of being disempowered over thy own self, the fear that creeps in over and over, these are certain emotions that are hard to comprehend or articulate through mere words. Rape is an act against humanity, let us at least make an effort to stop victim shaming or abusing post rape and stop normalising rape culture. Let’ s progress into a society which views a rape victim as someone more than just that and discard such identities as a part of their core identity. And let us always keep this in mind……

“Rape culture is Real and Ruthless.”