Me, and my precious existence amid rape culture

I am an infant

I am a toddler

I am a child

I am a teen

I am in my youth

I am a lady

I am a married woman

I am a young mother

I am a middle-aged woman

I am a 50-year-old woman

I am in my sixties

I am septuagenarian

Yes, I belong to this community

I am an important part of humanity

I am a woman who is expressing my views about the atrocities being faced by me in society by those who are supposed to be my protectors.

While browsing Facebook, Instagram,  and X, I found the social media platforms flooded with reels containing defense strategies, escape methods, karate techniques, and other advice on ‘how to protect yourself from alleged molestation threats’.

Time has changed, or an era has passed, and perhaps the earth’s environment has also changed, but in the changing times, we don’t know where we lost our humanity.

While quoting the first part, I am equally concerned about a purported obscenity in the same SM platforms.

I still find it quite puzzling, and appalling that where are the rules and regulations to regulate sexually explicit content in the social media platforms available to all Android users?

Rape – Robbing and paralyzing the esteem of a person

Without quoting any exposed rape incidents here, I will express my views on this topic through this article because narrating a horrific incident would hinder the presentation of my views.

It is difficult for those who believe in humanity to explain in a few words the gravity of the issue of molestation.

The seriousness of rape cannot be written about, because the trauma of being robbed of a person’s identity cannot be expressed. On raising her voice on this, first of all, the victim has to face the assassination of her character by society.

Law and rules don’t matter to the tormentor, they are turning into a cruel, shameless, remorseless community eyeing random girls or women to satiate their satanic side. 

Sexual attackers do not have the discretion to measure the sanctity of other human beings, especially women.

Most of the offenders are becoming predators whose victims are, unfortunately, women and girls, and caste, creed, age, and status do not bother them. Even blood relations don’t seem strong enough to stop them from being a predator.

Every once in a while we come across another horrific sexual harassment story that makes us think about our safety as if we are mere creatures and lack the basic right to life, to a dignified life.

Every day, open a daily newspaper and pray to read it without any of the rape cases.

There is not a single day when we do not read the news of rape in the newspaper.

There is not a single day when we travel without being afraid of a sexual molestation, it doesn’t matter whether it is merely a stare or a murmur about our looks, attire, and behavior.

This palpable fear permeates our behavior, projecting itself unmistakably from a distance. It grips us, coloring our every move, whether commuting on public transport or navigating public spaces.

This is so uncalled and unfortunate for humanity, cultural developments, inclusivity, justice, harmony, the malevolence-free environment, and other unethical practices that ultimately harm all of us.

Rape is not a simple word that one can summarize its overall effects on the society.

It is a highly contagious disease gripping society so severely and mercilessly that it is almost impossible to get rid of it.

One may have thought that the lady doctor did have the skill to kill the purported offender in a go.

But this thought is as absurd as thinking of a defense trick skill in a little girl of Badalapur or Kathua.

Why are we heading to a gothic, and inhumanistic society?

We don’t deserve a Bokaro, Hathras, Delhi, Kolkata, Farrukhabad, Badalapur, Hyderabad, Kathua, Unnao, Ratnagiri, Bhagalpur, Dumka, Dehradun, and other such cases of horrific rape and murder.

We don’t deserve so-called spiritual leaders who are sexual predators more than anything else.

We don’t deserve political hue and cry after such an incident, because the nefarious motive of most of the seekers is to get proper projection towards a political career rather than bring some change due to their agitation and strikes.

We don’t deserve special protection laws, because such harmful mindsets and preying mentality are so deeply ingrained in the social veins that they are more for show than to protect us from predators.

We do not deserve any special status for ourselves, as we all have faced and still face oppressive and regressive mindsets towards our existence even though we are depicted as Goddesses in our holy texts.

We do not deserve sympathy from unexpected quarters for the crimes committed against us. We want justice instead of empty promises.

We and our family do not deserve a social boycott after such a horrific incident, we also have the right to live with dignity and no one should have the guts to harm us physically, sexually, and mentally.

Why, Why, Why?

It is crucial to communicate with victims due to the tendency in society to blame them. This is necessary to shield the victim from the attention of opportunistic individuals who are always looking for their next target.

The saddest truth is that most of the perpetrators are known to the victims. In such cases, raising a voice against such crimes becomes even more difficult and the endless trauma and emptiness leads to extreme steps in many cases.

This shows that we failed to become responsible citizens of the earth.