The Delhi rape shocks. Outrage spills over. Punish the rapists. Lynch them. Castrate them. Soon the outcry will die down. To surface again when another rape surpassing this one in brutality and depravity occurs.
Rape is the monster-child of patriarchy.The deeply embedded belief that woman exists for man's pleasure and comfort and is a lesser being. That she is his property. To be used as per his wishes. Her feelings are not worthy of consideration at all. And so the daily harassment, humiliation and molestation of women is trivialised by the name of eveteasing. Rape is just an extension of that. Taking by force what one wants with utter disregard for the woman. An expression of power, of control. Making laws, enforcing them will work only upto a point. What has to change is the mindset. Respect and regard for the woman as an equal has to be taught from childhood. To both boys and girls. Hard to imagine that will happen any time soon in a country where female foeticide, dowry deaths are rampant practices. One can only hope and pray.
Newspapers today headline their shock and shame about the rape. And yet feature totally irrelevant picures of scantily clad women on other pages. The notion of woman as an object of desire is perpetuated. For selling a few copies more. The hypocrisy disgusts, nauseates.
Rape is the monster-child of patriarchy.The deeply embedded belief that woman exists for man's pleasure and comfort and is a lesser being. That she is his property. To be used as per his wishes. Her feelings are not worthy of consideration at all. And so the daily harassment, humiliation and molestation of women is trivialised by the name of eveteasing. Rape is just an extension of that. Taking by force what one wants with utter disregard for the woman. An expression of power, of control. Making laws, enforcing them will work only upto a point. What has to change is the mindset. Respect and regard for the woman as an equal has to be taught from childhood. To both boys and girls. Hard to imagine that will happen any time soon in a country where female foeticide, dowry deaths are rampant practices. One can only hope and pray.
Newspapers today headline their shock and shame about the rape. And yet feature totally irrelevant picures of scantily clad women on other pages. The notion of woman as an object of desire is perpetuated. For selling a few copies more. The hypocrisy disgusts, nauseates.
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