Enough!
Really, enough!
India's daughters have been told and so have the Britain's daughters and China's daughters and Australia's daughters and USA's daughters and I-am-sure-it-happens-in-all-countries' daughters!
We have all, more than enough been proved that we live in a world filled with men capable of behaving less than human and cause severe and permanent damage to the women, girls, children, even unborn fetuses around them! Really, enough!
I was brought up in a normal middle class area in a second-tier city: I fell down from my scooter when I was learning to ride it and I have had men from my neighboring houses whom I call uncles come and help me get up and learn and ride well. I have had some other men in the same neighborhood leer and catcall when I walked from my bus stop to my home. If I begin to think every man who's my father's age will behave like a father, I am an idiot. But, if I end up thinking every man, whatever his age is going to be a molester, I am more than an idiot.
I have had male friends, my classmates, to whom I could cry that I have stomach cramps and have them get me medicines, I have also had boys, my classmates again, call me names because I decided to get up on a desk and fix a streamer for a function: it's not a girl's job, you see!
I have seen boys and men, brought up in this patriarchal society, demean me - without even realizing that they are doing so - thinking that it is "best" for a girl. I have also seen boys and men, brought up in this same society, treat me like I want to be treated: not like a goddess, not like a dew drop, not like I am incapable; but as a human, as a person with a fully functioning thought process.
That's all we need, really, that is all!
I have not, to my eternal gratitude, seen any boy or man around me capable of the amount of violence that some of my brethren have had the ill luck of seeing. I don't claim to understand what the victims have gone through; much less, the survivors of sexual crimes have gone through. I am not being a know-it-all and saying that this is a phase and it will pass or some such crap.
Rapes are not sexual crimes, they have much more complicated reasons than simple lust. It happens in India, yes, but not just in India, also yes, but that doesn't mean we have to get our hackles raised now because a foreigner decided to do a number on us. It's okay, we withstood East India Company, I am sure we can survive this video.
Let us stop with all this mudslinging - this mindless, frenzied chaos!
Let us forget the damn video, let us get on with bringing up our children right!
P.S: No, my problem is not the video. My problem is the problem that came in because of it...
Really, enough!
India's daughters have been told and so have the Britain's daughters and China's daughters and Australia's daughters and USA's daughters and I-am-sure-it-happens-in-all-countries' daughters!
We have all, more than enough been proved that we live in a world filled with men capable of behaving less than human and cause severe and permanent damage to the women, girls, children, even unborn fetuses around them! Really, enough!
I was brought up in a normal middle class area in a second-tier city: I fell down from my scooter when I was learning to ride it and I have had men from my neighboring houses whom I call uncles come and help me get up and learn and ride well. I have had some other men in the same neighborhood leer and catcall when I walked from my bus stop to my home. If I begin to think every man who's my father's age will behave like a father, I am an idiot. But, if I end up thinking every man, whatever his age is going to be a molester, I am more than an idiot.
I have had male friends, my classmates, to whom I could cry that I have stomach cramps and have them get me medicines, I have also had boys, my classmates again, call me names because I decided to get up on a desk and fix a streamer for a function: it's not a girl's job, you see!
I have seen boys and men, brought up in this patriarchal society, demean me - without even realizing that they are doing so - thinking that it is "best" for a girl. I have also seen boys and men, brought up in this same society, treat me like I want to be treated: not like a goddess, not like a dew drop, not like I am incapable; but as a human, as a person with a fully functioning thought process.
That's all we need, really, that is all!
I have not, to my eternal gratitude, seen any boy or man around me capable of the amount of violence that some of my brethren have had the ill luck of seeing. I don't claim to understand what the victims have gone through; much less, the survivors of sexual crimes have gone through. I am not being a know-it-all and saying that this is a phase and it will pass or some such crap.
Rapes are not sexual crimes, they have much more complicated reasons than simple lust. It happens in India, yes, but not just in India, also yes, but that doesn't mean we have to get our hackles raised now because a foreigner decided to do a number on us. It's okay, we withstood East India Company, I am sure we can survive this video.
Let us stop with all this mudslinging - this mindless, frenzied chaos!
Let us forget the damn video, let us get on with bringing up our children right!
P.S: No, my problem is not the video. My problem is the problem that came in because of it...
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