“The tragedy of machismo
is that a man is never quite man enough"
~Germaine Geer
~Germaine Geer
We have heard and seen enough cases of the oppressive man in the progressive society. The latest story The Guwahati incident. Enough has been said and shown about it already. The videos are viral. So whatever opinion I would state won't be anything new. Whenever there's an issue, there'll be a heated discussion about it and a lot of people will have a lot to say and your Facebook newsfeed would be flooded.
Educate men. Respect
women. Women's rights. Stringent laws. And more blah.
Oddly enough those ideas can never be incorporated. Ever heard of anti-rape each one teach one ?
Enumerating some pretty basic facts ::
1. As long as there's white and black, yin and yang, men will objectify women and there's absolutely nothing one can do about it.
2. People package and brand this very concept and sell it in the movies. So people emulate it all the more. Changing the word 'rape' to 'sexual assault' won't change a thing.
Oddly enough those ideas can never be incorporated. Ever heard of anti-rape each one teach one ?
Enumerating some pretty basic facts ::
1. As long as there's white and black, yin and yang, men will objectify women and there's absolutely nothing one can do about it.
2. People package and brand this very concept and sell it in the movies. So people emulate it all the more. Changing the word 'rape' to 'sexual assault' won't change a thing.
News channels are the only
entities that get benefitted in the form of ‘breaking news’.
All of the women have been
subjected to a certain degree of harassment at some or the other point of their
lives be it in a bus, a train, on the road or even in a temple !! You always have to be alert and suspicious at
all times, you have to avoid deserted roads, you have to dress according to a
certain sensibility unless you want the Rowdy Rapists to pounce on you, you need
to do a double check at every step to check if someone’s following you, every
car that slows down beside you, you need to be careful to retract.
In spite of being super
careful, things will happen. A man will scan you from the tip of your head to the tip of your toe,
a man will give you his set of lewd looks, a man will come up to you and ask
you what's a dildo, a man will turn into Pee Wee Herman if there’s an
opportunity on a lonely road, a man will grope you in the darkness of the bus,
a man will grope you in the brightness of a crowded temple for that matter, a
man will pass obscene comments, a man will corner you and go around you with
his motorcycle and I can go on and on.
A friend suggests pepper
spray. Trust me friend, there’s never the time to rummage through your big bag, find that bottle and spray, spray, spray. All you can possibly think of at the
time is to run, run, run and never look back.
Depending on your degree
of luck, you either come out of the situation physically unscathed or you don’t.
Either ways the damage is more on the psychological front. Every time a certain incident happens you
start questioning the integrity of your creation. Gradually you become this
epitome of stoicism and learn to be comfortably numb with these encounters
accepting it as a way of life. You cannot fight the thought process, you cannot
fight the man with all his physical strength, you can only succumb. Such is the
sorry state of females. There's no such thing as equality of men and women and
can never be. The male species have their vested interests in every aspect of
the equality banter so please don't take it seriously. Workplace diversity is a
farce to keep the men engaged. Office would be such a bummer with no femme
fatales in it !!
At the end of the day, women
are physically weak, emotionally creeper-like and subject to objectification.
Now the feminists might
think I am crazy but I am in fact a hardcore feminist myself. It’s just that I
am not delusional. I am just being practical here. Rape or sexual assault or
anything in between will keep happening. All that the fairer sex can possibly
do is stay vigilant and careful at all times.
As they say, truth is
sometimes stranger than fiction.
Disclaimer: Certain
keywords hurt the Oriya sensibility and I know the quintessential Oriya girl is
not supposed to say them out loud, more so publish it online :P
Mere ramblings, no apologies ;)
Your post exudes a lot of helplessness which I can relate to, although I am a man. Born and brought up in Orissa I have seen how perverted men can be with so many of them getting great pleasure in touching women and feeling a sense of triumph. I always thought education is the differentiator but even that is not a deterrent. Being qualified and educated is like chalk and cheese.
I love flirting and wooing women but the very act of doing something against someone's will turns me off. For a long time I thought legalising prostitution in India might help but knowing how the assholes in our country are, even that will lead to young girls from poor economic background being exploited.
Incidents such as these make me feel ashamed and less manly.
The reason why Guns and Rape will never be out of vogue is that it gets immediate attention and a sense of power to the weak.
"The progress of a country is measured by the state of its women" and sadly we are going to the dogs!!!