If the law cannot protect me, can I?
A world run by men facing strong independent women!
Lucinda Joy Peach, in her document “Is Violence Male? The Law, Gender, and Violence,” she states “…law has traditionally interpreted domestic life as one of affective bonds within which violence has no legitimate place, it overlooks much of the violence by men against women while denying women the right to use violence in self-defense.”
Peach is deciphing the law and trying to address how the system has been shaped with the intention that the justice system should not interfere in the domestic life of partners. Peach mentions the affective bond which according to Kendra Cherry’s article Affectional Bonds According to the Attachment Theory, Cherry introduces John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth’s work as it has to do with attachment theory. She describes it as individuals that seek contact and proximity with the person he or she has an affection to. Using Cherries insight of affective bond within a relationship, Peach makes the connection about how the law refuses to acknowledge women’s allegations in relationships by stating that “the common law doctrine of coverture originally operated to deprive women of their legal status by declaring their interest merged into those of their husband upon marriage”. So, technically the law justifies ignoring the cries for help from women who were physically and mentally abused by their partners because it believed that violence could not be developed in a relationship where two humans had affection for each other.
Peach also adds that “until recent years, the law considered it impossible for a husband to rape his wive, and thus did not allow prosecutions for marital rape.” The system that was written by men, also defined by men has been creating a cycle of violence around women. This same system compels women into acting out on their emotions and causing harm to their perpetrators that have pushed them to their last resort.
For example, the film Angry Indian Goddesses directed by Pan Nalin does a beautiful job with bringing light into the situation on what women face on a daily basis, such as harassment on the streets, rape, and even murder. When this movie debuted, the India Censor Board was quick to cut out scenes that were not appeasing to their eyes. An article by India Today brings the scandal of the censorship to the media and gives us the exact scenes that were removed from the movie. Scenes that talked about sex, the system such as “Sarkar kaun hoti hai decide karne waali” which translates into “who’s the state to decide”, or any scene that contained a figure such as Kali who is described to be the “angriest indian goddess… who annihilates all the evil so a new world order could be created”. It appears that the Censor Board is trying to keep the image of the rebellious women who smokes, drinks, laughs loudly, talks back, and wears comfortable clothing suppresses as it does not conform to the idealistic women who believed to be docile.
This film is empowering to women anywhere as it is realistic story that sadly many women face. In this case these women were harassed on the street when their car broke down by a group of men. In an ideal situation, the women would have take it and gone along with their day, but these strong independent women put up a fight and did not play the docile role. This is a situation that can be interpreted by the police as women asking for it. As the movie progressed one of the main character, Johanna, decided to go for a walk to clear her head but, it got dark soon and she did not come back. Her eventually found her by the beach face down, and as they turned her they were faced with a lifeless Johanna that was beaten and raped till death. The first action that they took was call an ambulance who called the police. These women were soon surrounded by all men police officers and were heavily judges. The reporting police officer started judging this group of women right when he arrived there, his comments such as “victim was wearing such clothes huh?” referring to the outfit Johanna was wearing when she was brutally raped and murdered, followed by telling his commander officer that “they were partying on the beach” following by “the same situation drinking on the beach, indecently dressed…” With his own words he confessed the reality in the situation that cases like Johanna are very common. But, he does not realize that he is a a part of the problem to the situation. He believed that a situation is inevitable when there is women who are acting out instead of being docile women. But that is not the problem. The problem is blaming women for defending themselves or acting a certain way. They were let down by law enforcement and took it upon themselves to seek justice for their beloved friend. Most women are constantly being pushed to seek alternatives because they are tired of constantly going to the police, with no response. They are acting out on pain, hatred, and anger as their cries are silenced over and over again until most of them are dead, or in prison.
A solution to the problem with the system might be to incorporating more women into the judicial system and into the law enforcement. A system by men, run by men has proven to be bias to the white male body or the male body depending on the part of the world. With more women authority they might be able to change the system that has been ruled by male bodies. For example,based on statistics from an article Ratio of Male to Female Police Officers in India, there is a reality of 5.33% women in law enforcement which means that 94.67% of the law is being enforced by men based on their judgement. Women need to step up and try to change within the system what affects them the most. They can help women before they are killed or before they are raped. They can be the change, but the numbers are important as men within the system thrive in depriving women of their legal status.
Maybe one day women won’t have to fear calling the police and being judged or accused of asking for violence. Maybe one day women will be respected.
