The recent sexual assault on CBS reporter Lara Logan in Egypt, once again brings into focus the continuing use of sex as a tool for violence. This is a phenomenon which transcends all cultural boundaries, for people everywhere face it. And it doesn’t look like it is coming to an end anytime soon either. Maybe it is time to consider sexual assault from an alternate perspective.
The contradiction of “inviting to be raped”
One of the many reactions to the assault on Logan was that by being beautiful, and a female war correspondent, she was practically throwing away an invitation to be raped. Not that this is a new assertion. We’ve all heard of women who are “asking for it”, by dressing down- and not just from men, but from other women too. And to that, we reply by justifying with statistics, the number of women who get raped in burqas, when all covered up. But that is hardly the point. The question to ask is, why should a woman be raped depending on how she looks or dresses, when a good-looking man clearly won’t even if he goes half-nude? Further, how can there be even an “invitation” for rape considering that rape is something which is at root, non-consensual? Blank Noise, an anti-street harassment movement, succinctly answers this with its slogan, “I never ask for it,” simply because it would be a logical contradiction.
The rationale of sexual assault
Unlike popular belief, the rationale of sexual assault is not lust, but domination. Most honor killings are compounded with rape by a family member- the point of rape thus being to show the victim her place, so to say. In other words, telling the victims through an act, that they are not human enough to crave for the same freedoms. And hence a sexual assault, because gender is what it is targeted, after all. The point is to shame enough to make the victim believe inside that what she wants can never be realized, so stop attempting. All kinds of sexual assault, including those against men or transgenders, basically thrive on the insecurity of men about their “manhood”.
Tackling sexual violence
The only effective way to tackle sexual violence is by defeating its very purpose- humiliation. It’s time that those targeted realize that since they cannot ask for it, it’s not their fault when their bodily privacy is invaded. Though, of course it’s much harder to not feel humiliated when the society is constantly telling one to. That’s how so many instances of sexual violence go unreported. The assaulted need to be strong, and social perceptions need a change.
How law reinforces the rape culture
It’s not just society, but our very laws too, which reinforce this culture of victimization under sexual violence. Take a look at the crime of rape- what exactly are its constituents? Not just invasion of privacy, but also the “mental trauma” caused to the rape victim. So even the law ends up saying to the raped person, “Feel humiliated that you’ve been raped, that’s what we are punishing for.” Whereas law should be scaling down the punishment, by recognizing no humiliation for the victim (and hence not punishing for it), most advocates call for harsher punishments. However, it is forgotten that as long as humiliation is recognized as an essential part of sexual assault, the crime will still thrive, because it would manage to achieve what it intends.
(For open discussions between men and women regarding this culture of sexual violence do consider participating at the Blank Noise blog at http://blanknoise.org.)
