Gone are the days when women dared to look into a man’s face on the street. Liberation, as you call it, has become a common terminology in today’s scenario. Or rather, it has become the most underrated word because nobody really knows what liberation is. We live in a world where a bunch of underdeveloped brains term ‘Feminism’ as a bad word. They’ve begun to see feminists as a group of Misandrous people who blame men for everything that’s wrong with the society. While some argue to prove these statements wrong, somehow it seems to be true at a point.
India, as a country, holds a record in everything prestigious. Similarly, in everything disgusting as well. Not because I love Periyar for his dauntless ideologies, he was definitely a man beyond his age; a forward thinker. When he said that women should step out of the kitchen and must be taught to hold books instead of ladles, he was not joking. Those powerful words encouraged women all over south India to know their potential, and made them realize that they were worth more than just a domestic slave for a man. All his words did come true. Women educated themselves. It took decades for them to follow their passion and to achieve great heights and suddenly, it all began to shatter. Today’s society demands women to go back to the place they once belonged, the kitchen. This is solely because, some men have become the sexual predators who will mot only exploit the women physically, but also mentally.
There has been a huge number of cases in the recent days, that deals with rape and sexual assault against women. Regardless of age, they are treated less than an animal when it comes to bodily pleasure. A young lady, a middle aged woman, elderly women and worse, a new born girl child are all the same in the eyes of a pervert. On the whole, the reputation of men is at stake, because of some perverted lust oriented monsters who feed on a woman’s body for momentary pleasure without looking into the consequences that come later. These include childhood trauma, anxiety, stress and insecurity in the minds of victims that will haunt them forever.
Recently, the sexual assault that happened in Pollachi, Tamil Nadu is a heart wrenching incident that gave chills to everybody who read about it, or rather listened to it. Apparently, a young girl was betrayed by her male friend whom she considered trustworthy. She was molested, stripped naked, raped and taped! Her voice was so fragile, so brutally damaged and her cry of help was the most horrible one. She pleads, she begs, and she screams but there is no hope. At least, she made it alive. These group of men have abused around 200 women, taped them and demanded ransom in order to safeguard their dignity. Due to immense wealth, political influence and naturally caste domination, they were hardly under the eyes of Police. Finally, one of the victims decided to speak out and she submitted the evidence to the press. Kudos to Nakheeran for boldly bringing out this issue to the public. This issue caught the eyes of the authority only after a massive public anger that triggered many women especially. There were many responses from all over the region but sadly some were totally against women themselves.
The major issue with anybody who does not dare to speak out about the sexual assault faced by them is because of the fear of victimization. The victims are victimized, especially when it is a woman. There were many criticisms that targeted women on their way of dressing, and ultimate misuse of freedom. Freedom? What freedom? Who are they to free us from anything? The main focus was given to the types of revealing dresses that a woman wears that turns on men to commit such crimes. The serious problem lies in the eyes of men who assume that a woman wants it when she dresses in such a way. She may dress according to her comfort and that gives no message to a man that he can do anything he likes. Touching a woman without her consent is not humanity. Statements that point out women who dress inappropriately only talks about the male mindset that purely is intended on lust. It means that they will rape and abuse a woman if she is revealing and that they will not consider controlling themselves.
Many arguments arose stating that girls must be taught how to dress and how to behave in the society. Instead, nobody really cared about how they should raise a son. Gender equality begins at home. The parents must raise their children irrespective of their gender and teach them to respect one another. They must be aware of the opposite gender and treat them as equals. But all we do is, not let the son wash the vessels and not let the daughter outside the house after 6pm. This situation must change, and each of us must respect the feelings of one another. After so many years of Independence, women have really not been able to function independently without any hurdles. They do not feel safe even inside the family due to some sexually abusive relatives. That’s why sex education is very important. When a child learns gradually about the biological changes that happen in his/her body without finding it out themselves out of curiosity, their mentality will mould itself according to their mental and physical growth. They will understand the opposite gender and exercise their rights without any mishaps. Even though it sounds like an utopian dream, there’s always a hope that times will change for a better tomorrow.