Friday, December 21, 2012

Delhi attacks are a text book example of how a violent incident is turned into a women's rights issue



1. First lets define the incident . A boy and a girl was were subjected to severe beatings with an iron rod by a few hooligans . This is a very heinous offense no doubt but is it rape ?  The boy also was beaten very badly with the same iron rod that he girl was beaten , but do we have a single article describing his pain . No .. apparently because the men being beaten and his clothes torn remains a  man being beaten .However a  women being beaten with torn clothes is termed rape irrespective of the fact if there was a sexual intention to the incident. Instead of a calling a Delhi an "Unsafe city" filled with hooligans .. Delhi becomes "unsafe only for women" even as numbers show that  males also get beaten everyday in more numbers than females.

2. The ambit of rape is still not defined in Indian and essentially defined by the media. If the media feels it can portray an incident of an a argumentative woman being slapped by traffic cop for knocking a passerby in Bangalore  as a case molestation. In the same way more severe incidents like severe pushing , severe beating , kicking , punching and any bodily harm to women is often termed rape to gain more media mileage and sensationalism . For example when the police beats a woman protestor it becomes molestation and when the same police beats a male protestor with the same baton in the same riot the charge of hurt and grievous hurt may be leveled. This methodology not only increases the number of rape and molestation incidents statistically, but this also provides ammunition for proponents to bring more draconian senseless legislation under the guise of laws to protect women.

3. Media trails in India are common and everyday affair . Media start to repeat the incident and slowly the word rape starts to fly around . Very soon prominent women's rights organizations start to pick the brownie points by issuing statements left right and center without even verifying  if it was a rape . Filmstars and politicians soon join in the chorus and and start issuing politically correct statements to improve their image and score points. The whole incident is turned from a voilent beating to rape and focus shifts from the man to the woman. Candles come out only demanding that women be protected and there is not a single demanding justice for the man who was equally brutalised .

4. This is not the first time male pain and suffering was ignored by the media and government . In the famous Ruchika Gihrotra case in 2009 , Ruchika's brother was brutally tortured by the police for weeks to pressurize Ruchika to take her molestation complaint back. However the media attention was solely focused on Ruchika's suicide and this was morphed turned into women's rights issue ignoring the plight of the bother who languished in jail for weeks on end getting tortured all for protecting his sister.No demands were made for her brother getting a fair trail and neither did a single person light a candle against torture of males by Indian police.

4. The reaction of the Aam Aadmi, especially males is no less surprising. Demanding death for the alleged rapists is the most minimum humane  punishment demanded by promiment people . The Aam aadmi(especially males) on the street when asked  on the suitable punishment demand castration , eating by rats , cutting off of genitals and ever increasing grotesque punishments right out of medieval times for the alleged rapists as if deriving some sadistic pleasure of seeing the alleged rapists suffer . It also appears that harsher the punishment demanded the more pleasure the male gets by demanding it . The stand of the Indian males is hardest to gauge . On one side they salivate to gyrating semi clad women in bollywood movies(which is allowed by the govt)  , have a population that is going through the roof and other the other side they get extreme pleasure of seeing another male sufer in the most horrible way possible even before the crime is proven beyond any resonable doubt. 

So why is violence against men ignored and why is violence against women increasingly being called rape ? Why is a women hit in her genitals automatically become an incident of rape whereas a  man hit in his genitals by the same person with the same weapon does not get the any coverage . Does the man feel any less pain or does he deserve less because he is a man ?  Why do Indian seek such sadistic pleasure out of proposing such medieval punishment and then choose to ignore the brutality that males suffer totally ignoring the fact that they  too can one day face the same media trial which they are now enjoying as a viewer. These are some questions that we need to ponder before we pass out half baked judgements sitting in our living room on an incident we have little knowledge about .