Instead of placing the burden of culpability and shame on the perpetrator, where it belongs, rape culture places it on the backs of the victims.
In just under a month, we’ve witnessed bystanders filming a sexual assault in a busy street in Ujjain. We’ve seen the name of the Kolkata trainee doctor who was brutally raped and murdered, become a trending search on pornography websites
These are not isolated incidents. They are not anomalies. They are the visible symptoms of a deep-seated societal illness we know as rape culture. Rape culture is not merely about the act of rape, as the phrase indicates. It is an interconnected system of beliefs, attitudes, and behaviours that not only normalise sexual violence, but excuse it.
There is a term for what happened to the survivor in Ujjain: It’s called ‘the bystander effect’ or ‘bystander apathy’. Psychologists hold that the greater the number of people present, the less likely they are to help a person in distress, either governed by self–interest or confusion. But forget intervening or assisting the woman in Ujjain, witnesses went a step further. They chose to give in to voyeurism, evidence of a societal desensitisation to violence against women.
Voyeurism and desensitisation are probably what guided men to search pornography websites for footage of the assault of the RG Kar Hospital rape-murder victim. You’d think this was an aberration, rather than the rule. But every such public case routinely ends up in the gutter of trending searches on pornography websites – and it doesn’t matter if the victim is a child or an adult. If it happened and involved non-consensual sex, Indian men are determined to unearth it.
According to the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) that analysed thousands of affidavits submitted by our current lawmakers, two MPs and 14 MLAs have cases of rape registered against them. In addition, they have been charged with acid attacks, molestation, sexual harassment, stalking, and even “buying or selling of a minor for purposes of prostitution and marital cruelty”.
by Karanjeet Kaur
11/09/2024