So, you need pictures to believe that rape happens?

So, you need pictures to believe that rape happens?

There is no picture. See what you want to see, and wake up.

Have you been awakened yet? Have your eyes dropped out from their sockets as you saw the pictures of the girls hanging from a tree? Are you done with discovering poetry in the limbs of the branches and the scent of the soil, the mango fruit that would now lack lusciousness? Ah, lusciousness. That is what you were seeing. Are you aware now? You did not know that rape existed? That Dalits existed? That women's bodies were used and abused? Of course, you did. I heard you each time there was a rape talking about how you were elbowed in the local train, or that uncle leering at you when you were young, You spoke about it, and it was always applauded as a courageous move. You were so brave. You knew everything. You and those nice men who are concerned about protecting women. Those media vultures with their pixelated faces made to replay a tragedy that no one, no one, no one can understand except the one who goes through it. I won't describe it. You are looking for that. You need it to awaken you. I tell you what. Get a cup of coffee. Or something stronger

Ever since the two teenagers, cousins, in Badaun, UP, were taken into a room and gang-raped, with the police helping along, and then were strangulated and tied to that tree you are using flowery language for, and hanged till they died, you have discovered your inner conscience. Now you want everybody to chart out their travel itinerary to find their consciences. You say the photographs are necessary to make people aware. Cinema has shown the rape of women, including realistic cinema. There are books with characters who are sexually brutalised. Newspaper reports stare at you while you sip your morning cuppa. Why does nothing happen to you then? Why do you get an adrenaline rush only when you see girls like these? 

I could not look at the photo for more than a second till it came on my screen. I did not want it to.  

--

--==

==

--

--

=

And why this emphasis on gruesome crimes? In many cases of rape, there might not be visible physical violence; the girl/woman could be drugged or just overpowered. Is that of any less consequence? Your attitude reveals that you revel in the sensational. Even when there is a supposed sense of empathy, the headline reads "Two girls in a tree", as though they are objects. 

And objectification it is. First by the rapists, then by the cops, and now by you. You are a spectator. You cannot bring about change in this manner. There are small organisations in villages. There was Bhanwari Devi, a gangrape victim, who became a 'saathin' to help women. There is the Gulabo Gang of vigilantes. To an extent, even the dacoit Phoolan Devi was such an example. They went through the fire and could keep the flame alive. 

Awakening is not about a candle that will melt. 

(c) Farzana Versey

http://farzana-versey.blogspot.in/