Rape Does Not Alter the Victim’s Status!

Rao, I am left confused with this. Still have to figure out your position. Think you are being unclear.

Rao, I am left confused with this. Still have to figure out your position. Think you are being unclear.

Vijendira Rao:

Welcome to Chowk. You have picked a good topic and I believe that you meant well. It took me some time to figure it out but I take it that you are against porn and firmly believe that it is degrading to women.

There is no doubt that pornography increases the “objectification” of the women but the conclusion that the media and especially internet is somehow responsible for the increase in the incidence of rape is, however, debatable. The common belief, that Porn is the theory; rape is the practice, though shared by many remains unproven.

We would have seen a rise in the incidence of rape on a logarithmic scale with the pervasiveness of the internet considering that more than half of the internet traffic is porn related. That certainly is not the case.

Contrary to what might be expected, studies have shown that there is a negative correlation between pornography and sexual criminal behavior.

In fact, a study done by Robert A. Baron and Donn Byrne in 1984 shows a decline in the number of sexual crimes.



A good review on this topic is available at: http://www.asc.upenn.edu/usr/chunter/porn_effects.html

Regards

Nauman Nisar

Dear Rao,
You have taken up several issues at the same time and tried to to put them together in a small article --position of women in contemporary society,pornography and e-revolution,rape and other crimes against women.Each of these is a big issue in itself.
We, sitting in metropolies in the subcontinent feel that probably everybody has excess to internet,while the fact is that even in cities,only a small percentage has access to internet.Young urban generation does try to sneak into cyber-cafes and surf the net,but how much time out of that is actually spent on porn sites is debatable as younger generation has too much competion to face to get into good colleges.
Exposure to media has a link with increased violence including sexual offences,but putting the entire blame on media is wrong.According to your theory the exposure to porn will increase sexual desire which will lead to rape.But this has been emphasized time and again that sexual desire/satisfaction is not the aim of rape.Rape is committed to stamp the authority,take revengeor to teach a lesson to the victim or more likely to the family of the victim,where victim is mere a scapegoat.What media/e exposure has done is the increase in the premarital sex,teenage pregnancies etc which is a different issue altogether.
Rape does change the life of the victim,not just quantitatively but qualitatively and social isolation,poor self esteem,Post Traumatic Stress Disorder,Depression and suicide are common consequences.

Vijendra Rao

You are a polished writer. Nonetheless our patriarchal society has more to blame than e-technology on why women are continuously crucifixed on the altar of gender discrimination. The onslaught of reality TV shows such as Big Brother, Jerry Springer, Oprah, Sally Jessy Raphael et al ..do accentuate that women or even children are the victims in a society saddled with discrimination.

Witness the Michael Jackson, Mike Tyson and R kelly trials of recent times, and how they project to the world that not only women, but tender children are quite often the victims of a patriarchal testosterone-driven madness.

So whilst ackowledging your point I do contest your views by highlighting that media and technology often act as an instrument to expose the truth embellish women with more human rights and expose the wrong-doers. Unfortunately, as philosophers such as Max Weber and Antonio Gramsci suggest the media itself is very manipulated and therefore needs to be taken with ounces of salt.

galloping crime?
I didn`t know galloping was a crime!
Chowk should create an educational section and put your article there to show what happens when you think in gibberish and write in english.

Vijendra (hello:)),

I will agree that “titillation” has increased in the media in recent years. I will also be the first to grant you that much of the media portrays a woman as a sex object.

However, several points:

** {The galloping crime against women can only be explained in the background of the ongoing e-revolution.}

Perhaps it’s a professional hazard but whenever I see a statement, which imputes correlation, my first inclination is to ask for the quantitative study behind it. Have you seen such a study or conducted one yourself? If you are going to use this premise to base your entire argument on, please don’t let it be a matter of opinion but provide a reference.

**You neglect to mention an important fact (perhaps the most important of all) which any sociologist worth the ink on his degree will tell you; that rape is NOT a crime of “sex” but of that of “power”. Sex is only the weapon of choice through which the inevitable subjugation occurs.

**Rape existed long before the advent of the internet, titillating movies and television programs. It is flawed men who view women as a “non-entity” that rape women. They were flawed before the “titillation” entered the scene and they are flawed still. A man who views a woman as an equal, is unlikely to rape her as a result of being “titillated” by a “salacious” movie.

paging

vijendra...vijendra rao

This board reeks of body fluids, the kind that oozes out when a female forgets to wear protective padding and sits in a chair, during her menstrual cycle.How cheap and tawdry can one get?.Yes, one can , and this essay is living proof of that.

Vijendra Rao

Do not forget that in totalitarian regimes where women`s rights are a mere token gesture on paper tiger constitutions, the internet and technology are often the only medium these women have to voiceferously air the injustices invoked upon them.

In a lot of dubious countries with politically pandering elites censor the media and abuse women, they cannot easily curb the internet, for the world wide web remains very hard to police, henceforth the evident lack of international protocol to monitor the internet.

this emancipated electronic universe often acts as a safety valve to women who have no other recourse for redressal. a mere post on the website of Amnesty International is all it takes to raise awareness.

Vijendra,
I had written something in haste and while reading I felt it conveyed negative thoughts about women. You have done a great job in highliting the plight and trauma of the rape victims. Rape becomes news when the animals are on the loose and infants, under age girls, invaids, mentally challenged become victims. Even the dead and octageneraians are not spared.
In Mumbai a similar creature was discovered in the uniform of a law enforcer. The only way to punish the rapist is to `hang them by the neareast lamp post` or incarcerate them in solitary confinement for ever.
In most other cases the crime does not get reported and the victim suffers in silence because the perpetrator is a relative or known closely to the victim. It is necessary to know why the intuition and defense of the victim has failed her. -Thomas