On Fri, Apr 26, 2013 at 12:33 PM, Deepak Shenoy <[email protected]>wrote:
> What I mean is - if rape is about power, then the problem isn't in > showing porn or not showing it. We might as well allow it - because > the rapist isn't going to stop for lack of porn, he will want the > power that his act does. > > It's in the desire for power, which probably has much more to do with > our violent TV/movies, our violent cartoons (Chota Bheem! and also Tom > and Jerry) our violent Arnabs, our cops slapping people, parents > beating kids, people getting away despite their obvious violence (like > that phenomenal Hindu ad about parliamentary behaviour) etc. > > Rape is about power and inequality. It is about the chattelisation of women. Whether as mother, sister, wife or lover, a woman is not accorded the freedom to choose the contours of her own personality. She's expected to conform, in some ways even in the most "liberal" set up, to a pre-existing male ideal. Precisely why the Verma Committee Report looked at rape as an offence arising out of inequality rather than any other factor. There is, however, in a country with vast cultural and monetary differences, the concept of sexual jealousy. But the rapes we have witnessed in India in recent times haven't related to sexual jealousy - they have been all about power. And that sense of power is so deeply ingrained that a lot of the accused didn't even realise that rape was that big a deal. In rural India a lot of pre-marital sex is rape. Because we chattelise women, we don't let them come into contact with other men as they are growing. Much like we do with our money or any other thing of value. And in a similar sense it becomes something that other men want to take away from us. Listening to Parliamentary debates about the need for the death penalty makes me feel we have no hope since our law and policy makers are blind to the true causes of rape because to address those would require a restructuring of society. Regards, Nikhil Mehra Advocate, Supreme Court of India Tel: (+91) 9810776904 Res: C-I/10, AIIMS Campus, Ansari Nagar (East) New Delhi - 110029.
