The Second Sex, in the 21st century...

I am so infuriated right now; I don't know where to start. I'm oscillating between utter disbelief, fervid anger and extreme helplessness. I'm determined to reach the bottom of this ridiculous plague but I'm afraid I'll find an abyss of evil, as bottomless as it is mindless.

Every front page of every newspaper in this country reports stories of rape and murder, every single day of the week. Apparently the inability of a man to suppress his sexual urges and to respect a woman's dignity is as common and mutely accepted as corruption. And that's saying a lot given how deep rooted and penetrative the latter is in this country.

5 men in Ghaziabad went to the extent of knocking another man (the victim's friend) unconscious post which they proceeded to take turns to rape a 21 year accountant. A 16 year old minor was gang raped by 3 men for 3 hours in South Delhi. A class 9 student was allegedly raped by her 40 year old step father in North West Delhi. In Kerala, a 23 year old woman was allegedly raped on a train. In an attempt to escape she jumped off the moving train and lost her life. A two year old girl child was raped by a drunkard man at Nahar factory on Chandigarh-Ambala National Highway. These are just A FEW cases that have occurred in India in the past two months.

In other words, it appears that NO woman, regardless of background, occupation, appearance, and even age can live without the fear of being harassed or attacked by the many lewd and abominable men prowling the streets. Hell, the man might be living in the same house as her even! How this substantiates India's claim of being on the path of emancipating its women is beyond me!

About a month ago, the Khap panchayat "passed a diktat which claimed that wearing jeans had a "bad effect" on young women and incidents of eve-teasing had increased due to their "objectionable clothes"." In June last year a Mumbai college denied admissions to girls wearing "tight jeans" as it tainted the college's reputation. These cases provoked me for a number of reasons, but I bring it up here to reiterate how completely ignorant and illogical the so called 'authorities' can be. "Women should dress conservatively, for their own good", "Women who get raped ask for it, in some way or another.", "Rape is the result of the mindless aping of the West. Women should remember their Indian roots." Over the past several years, statements of a similar nature have been passed by many people, in some cases even women themselves! How do these people possibly explain the rape of burkha clad women and children?! Is it just me or have they entirely missed the point here?! Is there a way that men in India can learn that contrary to popular belief, they do not in fact have a right over every female and that they are not entitled to instant sexual gratification as and when they wish for it? Is there a way to end this crime which causes inevitable and immeasurable trauma and despair to the victim?

I'm enraged to the point of starting a movement which ensures castration of every convicted rapist in the country, aside from life imprisonment. However, I know this will be futile and will barely solve the problem. So instead for now I'll just play the part of the sociologist I was taught to be, and will try to figure out the root cause of this problem.

India is predominantly a patriarchal society. It always has been. For centuries, Indians opposed widow remarriage, promoted social evils like Sati, gave preference to the male child, killed the female child and so on and so forth. These and many other practices illustrate the inferior position of women over the years. So much so that even women accepted this subjugation and resigned to their fate. Over the past few decades, this so called inherent inferiority has clashed with women's new found independence. The men who have grown up feeling superior find this hard to fathom. Not only do they feel threatened, they also feel displaced. Raping a woman then, becomes acquisition of power. A reiteration of the male's dominance. Rape within a household, between a man and his wife is not uncommon in India either. This further proves how a man's ego and his need to gratify his urges take precedence over everything else. Including a woman's fundamental rights.

Another very important reason is the lack of education. I've always maintained that our country can truly progress only through education of the masses. Poverty, diseases, corruption, crime and an array of other problems affecting the country today can and will be eradicated only through the provision of holistic education. This is a graver problem than it seems since when I say education I mean not just the ability to read and write, but the ability to differentiate right from wrong. The ability to be a responsible citizen of the country. The ability to respect every single human being and to make rational decisions. This kind of education requires capable teachers, a reliable infrastructure and the allocation of lakhs of crores. Regardless of the challenges, if some day this is implemented then it will surely lead to a drastic decline in rape cases.

There are many other sociological and psychological reasons but in actuality none can provide any pacification. The above are just some of my thoughts on this lurid crime. It has taken all my will power to look at this callous and despicable act from an objective standpoint. I will go back to being helpless and livid for now and hope that by some miracle India becomes a country where women are respected, and where men use their brains and not their libido to guide their actions.

Note - The name of the post is inspired from 'The Second Sex' (French: Le Deuxième Sexe, June 1949); one of the best-known works of the French existentialist Simone de Beauvoir. It is a work on the treatment of women throughout history and often regarded as a major work of feminist literature. In it she argues that women throughout history have been defined as the "other" sex, an aberration from the "normal" male sex. (Source: Wikipedia)

Resolution-ing.

Alright. So it's ten days into the new year and I suppose resolutions are in order. From the age of about 13 till about 17 my only resolution every year was "Make atleast 3 people smile every day". Corny as it sounds, I think I managed on most days with random acts of kindness. This would last up till March at most, post which the cumulating burden of the new year would displace this altruistic attempt with regular doses of teenage drama. It would come back to me intermittently through the year, lasting a few days and then phasing out.

I know I made resolutions over the past few years, but I can't for the life of me recall any of them. This year, 2 months before I turn the dreaded 22, I feel I should put down atleast few reasonable goals for 2011. The (very ridiculous, I admit) feeling of having too much to do in too little time has crept in and resolutions might provide some pacification and streamlining.

In 2011 I resolve to -

1. Decide on a career path and start working towards it.
2. Either get a job in a relevant field, or get into a good post grad college.
3. Take many photographs, more than I already do.
4. Keep in touch with friends! AIESEC, college, home, school.
5. Be less affected by domestic squabbles. Ignorance is bliss.
6. Be more positive, optimistic and aware.
7. Save money (for traveling, or an SLR, or anything else worth saving for)
8. Travel to at least 3 new places.
9. Read more books.
10. Read the newspaper every single day!
11. Blog regularly (I am obviously failing at this considering it's taken me over a month to complete this ONE blog post) *hangs head in shame*
12. Practice my Spanish and speak it fluently by the end of the year.
13. Watch more movies/documentaries.
14. Give my room a make over.
15. Make at least 3 people smile everyday.

There you go. I may add more as the year progresses or I may not even manage to fulfill these. Let's hope its the former.