Is Sexual Harassment becoming a normal stuff?
The sexual harassment laws that came into effect recently lays down the rules for dealing with cases of sexual harassment at workplaces.However ,one major problem, which has captured the imagination of many legal experts and women activists pertains to the fact that only a fraction of women come forward to report those cases of sexual harassment. Why is it so?Is sexual harassment becoming a normal stuff or has the tolerance level of women increased so much that they do not consider it as something wrong ?
Even women who have been a victim of sexual aggression of men often see it as a "normal stuff" because that's what "men do".Women nowadays often consider rape culture as a norm because the endless chatter about what "Masculinity" and "Femininity" actually means pivots around a very particular set of myths; myths which have been effective in protecting the privileged from being held accountable for sexual aggression.
Even women who have been a victim of sexual aggression of men often see it as a "normal stuff" because that's what "men do".Women nowadays often consider rape culture as a norm because the endless chatter about what "Masculinity" and "Femininity" actually means pivots around a very particular set of myths; myths which have been effective in protecting the privileged from being held accountable for sexual aggression.
MYTH 1:Males have very poor self control
Men are believed to have very poor self control. They cannot be held responsible for what they do with their penises .They have less developed moral compasses and would screw any available orifice with a clean conscience if there weren't many women to make them feel bad about it.
I hope I do not have to explain why this myth is 1)Highly misandrist and 2) and not genuinely believed even by the most patriarchal men who for ages have had been proud of their power of self control through which they have been creating and managing society.
MYTH 2: Female sexuality exists for the benefit of men alone
Sex ,as conceived by girls is "something which men do to women" not "something in which women engages for their own pleasure". Thus any kind of display of an interest in sex by women is considered as a sexual invitation for men even if it was not directed at them.
MYTH 3:Women must protect themselves against men's sexuality
Knowing men's sexual aggression,women are charged with taking care and protecting themselves if any potentially dangerous situation arises. In other words,besides not being able to freely explore their desires they are burdened with managing men's sexual desires for them as well. Thus women are the "vaginal gatekeepers" and it is their responsibility to grant or deny the vaginal access for which that men can't help but push for so insistently.
Those myths offer women no useful framework with regard to protecting themselves and providing remedies against the sexual aggression.Then why in an era where " the patriarchy as been definitively pronounced dead by the lefty magazines" are women being fed and judging themselves according to this claptrap?
This is because those myths help in protecting the privileged. Because proper enforcement of such laws would land a large swathe of a privileged segment of the population in court where "Men have poor self control" will not count as a legal defense.
Thus society needed to change those "rape laws" or invent myths like the ones mentioned above to absolve sexual aggressors and discredit those who dare to challenge them.
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