The psyche of a Rapist
An Inside look of Indian society
Misogyny is enrooted in Indian culture at its core. From our family to society, school to the workplace, songs to movies, consciously or sub-consciously we are fed that boys are superior and far-fetching than girls. Misogyny is being fed to our sub-conscious subtly that it’s a part of their life. Such level of normalization is disheartening at it’s least and cruel at it’s worst.
Patriarchy is the first-hand introduction for a kid where he is introduced to male dominance. The slightest hint about Male gender being superior to the Females leads to a bias towards females at an early age. From there on, it gets solidified in their psyche because of the way society treats women. This enroots an undying urge of dominating women that dictates the decision making of man.
Lack of sexual education is a product of classifying the entire concept of sex as taboo in the name of culture. Advocates of cultures deem that discussing sex is against the culture, against the Sanskaar. Probably, it was just a hypothesis created by insecure men, who wasn’t comfortable discussing sex. Now the conversation of sex is limited to the “locker room” talks.
Victim Shaming is the most absurd factor associated with rape. A victim who has already been through the trauma of being used as a sexual object against her will goes on to suffer if she chooses to raise her voice. From family to authorities everyone instead of being supportive shat on the very possibility of not feeling bad about herself despite being a victim.
Lack of female interaction is one of the most underrated factors associated with rape. No one is addressing it, ‘coz it only functions in the hindsight of the perpetrator. What’s happens in most cases is that the soon-to-be-rapist has never leveled with a woman at an emotional level. He fails to recognize the individual identity of a woman.
In a nutshell, a soon-to-be-rapist fails to acknowledge the feelings of the soon-to-be-raped woman because it’s a patriarchy and he has been fed prejudice against the opposite gender. In the lack of legitimate institutional structure of apprehending the perpetrators, he takes his chances. And viola in most of the cases he gets away with it.
And the sad part is that these above-mentioned attributes are largely applicable to the Rapist who targets a stranger, which happens only in 7% of the total rape cases in India. While 93% of rapes are committed by someone known prior to the victim — like relatives, friends, friends of the father, or someone from their locality.
This article will be a part of larger series around the psyche of our rape culture and rapists. India deserves better, women deserves better.
