Waking up in a Cruel World

In the wake of the horrifying tragedy in Delhi last December, my mind reverted back to an age old fear - a vagina automatically makes you a target of violence. Rape has been used in old texts as a weapon against women and their families, it has been cited in the bible with the rape of Thamar by her half-brother Amnon. It is cited in mythololgy and legends alike and has been used in wars and civil unrest and will continue to be a weapon of choice by many predatory men whether living in first world developed countries or in shanty town alleys of third world underdeveloped nations. One thing is evident, when it comes to violating a woman's rights the first thing she is vulnerable to is rape because the weapon of violation is most often a body part that can't be scanned and taken off a person.

When growing up in a third world patriarchal nation, women are always subjected to their male counterparts. Christianity has further cemented the status of men in leading roles by announcing that men are the head of the household and their wives are subjected to their authority. Male heirs are favoured in place of female children, boys are often more celebrated at birth and during childhood than their female counterparts. Women often wish to have sons instead of daughters, whether it is because boys are easier to take care of than girls or whether they need more boys to fish and till the land or in some cases boys play rugby or football and go overseas and make their parents rich by building them a big old house and buying them new super cars.Sometime women are just as guilty of encouraging a male dominant society. We have unknowingly molded our mindsets into acknowledging the superiority of men, after all it was not until the late 80s that women actually started to step out into the work force as formal competitors to their male counterparts. Women started to recognize the need to further their education and step out of their lifelong role as caregivers and soon enough we found that we can do better than some, if not most of our counterparts.

Perhaps some men took this as a threat to their role as the dominating breed and thought that they exercise their brute will by slapping around and even hurting some of their partners while trying to feed their ego into believing that they are still the dominant of the human species. With all the educational advancement and social well being that we have been exposed to these days, we would think that our male counterparts would resort to solving circumstantial differences by the thousands of ways that experts have proposed. I guess it's usually a case of easier said than done because most of the time, pushing does come to shoving and when shoving isn't enough - rape is imminent.

What happened was brutal to say the least, but everyday, out there somewhere, someone is being raped. Whether physically or mentally we are subjected to rape in more ways than one. We are vulnerable because we have let ourselves become objects of violence for so long. We almost don't know where to start eradicating this problem from. We must start by recognizing that we are the stronger sex, we are the dominant givers of life and we will not let any man tell us different. We are strong. We are wise. We are own our destiny.