Note: This article has been written after the author watched what she believes is a genuine rape (classified as ‘rape porn’) recorded and posted online for the amusement of the masses.
It has always surprised me how rape, considered to be the worst crimes against women, is the source of pleasure to a big chunk of the population, for whom it is recorded and posted online.
It is an even surprise that Indians, the people from the land of Durga and Kali worshippers, indulge in the egregious pleasure.
So I did the only rational thing that may help us in getting to the root of the problem: searched it up online and analysed the nitty-gritty of it.
A Note on the Analysed Piece
The piece I analyse below is of gang members raping a girl travelling alone through an abandoned building at night.
The members upon finding her, undress her in the most brutal way possible and proceed to commit unspeakable acts of cruelty against her.
I could not find the view count, ‘likes’ or comment data on the video, but safe to say that if someone is paying to make sure it stays public, they are profiting off of it.
I noticed a unique sync in their sinful actions, like lifting the girl so the other can penetrate her.
Their faces shine with the sweat of the effort and their excitement at being able to have a ‘pass’ at the female.
They seem to think nothing of this live human they are relishing their physical pleasures with; she is used like a toy they paid for and is now theirs to enjoy.
I point out the sync of their actions because they seem more in sync together than the throngs of men and women who protest against such crimes in public.
Noble as their activism is, no actionable outcomes follow from their efforts to ensure the safety of women, perhaps because the root cause of such crimes are rarely understood by most.
No, patriarchy is not the root problem I am talking about here.
If patriarchy were the problem, there would be no rape crimes with male victims.
Why Rapists Rape
In today’s society, we have rape perpetrators from both genders indiscriminately raping the other and their own gender.
The numbers may differ, but the root cause we identify must explain why all these crimes occur.
Let me walk you through the answers with a set of few questions:
What makes the rape one of the most cruel crimes against mankind?
Ans. Neglecting consent.
What happens when consent is neglected?
Ans. One party, the victim(s) are subject to the whims and fantasies of the other party, the oppressor(s).
What does the victim feel upon being raped?
Ans. A loss of control over their body and choices.
What does the criminal gain from raping another person?
Ans. Physical pleasure, but more importantly, control over the victim’s body to use and dispose of as they please.
This explains why so many rape victims in India are killed after their harrowing experience.
The perpetrator, drunk with power of control over the victim’s body, assumes (with full conviction) that their new toy is theirs to throw away as they please; naked from a moving bus, to chop into pieces and dispose of in the river, to leave with naked body in a field with sticks and stones in all the holes they enjoyed defiling.
Diving into The Data
As per the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), in the year 2022, there were 31,516 rape cases and 248 cases of rape with murder.
Basically around 31,516 individuals (a rough figure, it might be more with gang rape figures or less due to repeat offenders) thought nothing more of a fellow human than an object for their sexual pleasure.
248 lives were taken because either the perpetrator assumed control over the victim’s right to live or they judged the victim’s life less important than their desperation to avoid jail.
There are some who will interject that these figures show the officially recorded cases and thus don’t represent the full picture; and they are absolutely right.
In a country where shame is prioritised over justice, we can get an idea about the actual rape figures by studying how safe a woman is in the environment where she lives.
The ‘Dark figure of crime’ revolves around comparing the police (NCRB) records against household surveys (NFHS) for sexual violence, which shows that 99% of sexual violence crimes are not officially reported.
There are other factors as well, such as:
A rape murder that is only recorded as murder because:
Only recording as murder to keep the rape statistical figure low
No evidence of sexual violence on the bodies of the women which decompose before they are found
Rapes being disguised as honour killings
Rape and other sexual violence by spouse is not illegal
These factors together silence the victims even if they are alive and screaming for justice.
Thus, it is estimated that for every 1 case officially registered in the records, there could be 100s you and I will never know about.
The Hunt for a Victim
A rapist derives his identity (at least at the time of raping) by controlling the future of their victim through their physical and identity degradation (from Draupadi to a rape victim, for example) and it would thus make more sense for him to rape someone he sees everyday around him.
He might enjoy the tensing of her body as he passes her by, her decisions as to where she goes (anywhere but near him) and knowing the ‘one-up’ he has over her with the elevation of his standing as the controller and the degradation of hers as the victim.
In 95.8% of the above cases, the victim knew the perpetrator.
Just 9,258 cases of these were false promises to marry, a big 20,910 cases involved a family member, neighbour or other acquaintances.
The Unheard Story of the Human ‘object’
The victim in the video looked like she wasn’t aware of what was happening for the first 15 minutes of the video, she seemed so shocked she might have disconnected from her grim reality completely.
There was no physical protest after the first 2 minutes, only her eyes fluttered open randomly to show that was still alive.
At the rough 15 minute mark, she seemed to be starting to realise what was happening to her and tried weakly flailing her body to escape the horror she was forced to endure. Weakened by the 15 minutes of nonstop torture and a mind not ready to accept the truth, she made attempts to protect herself that can only be described as desperately weak.
The man, fueled by testosterone and the power over her life at that moment, held her firm with their feet and slaps.
She finally cried as her brutal reality crashed in on her.
I have no idea what became of her after that, or even if she is alive or dead as I dissect her ordeal here.
I saw a good friend of mine, the most fearless and ferocious friend I know in fact, getting scared only once since I met her.
She recounted being sexually touched (she did not elaborate, nor did I press her on it) by two neighbours and two cousins (from Maasi, her mother’s sister’s sons).
Her black eyes always full of merriment and mischief dulled for the five minutes throughout the course of this conversation. I can only describe her manner then with the word सहम (feeling of fear).
She has a man who loves her dearly but she couldn’t embrace him without suffering a panic attack (thankfully he helped her out of it and supported her with love, care and time).
Her wound from the past, however, still hurts her loved ones in the present she wants to share her future with.
While she avoids her mother’s dear sister’s house like the plague after her ordeal, the two sons are married and go on living their lives, with families and children of their own.
There is no point in you, the reader, or me, her friend, in being sad about these past incidents.
The best step we can take is to make sure that no other girl goes through the order of this magnitude where their right to life is thus insulted again.
How to Encourage Rape
My friend - and me, the victim of sexual touches in public, would urge us all to dedicate ourselves to making sure that this does not happen again, either to me, or to her, or to anyone else for that matter.
Each rape that goes unpunished emboldens the identity of the perpetrator as someone who has the power to control another human’s rights and life.
Each time a victim is asked, “Kya kapde pehne the?”, “Vahan kyu gayi?” or “Itni raat mein kyu baahar thi”, is us asserting the perpetrator’s superiority over a victim left with no choice.
Each rape that goes unpunished is not just us ignoring rape, it is us celebrating the rape culture.
Note: The author mainly focuses this piece on rapes performed against Indian women, but the core idea remains the same when we study rapes against men.
Patriarchy is the not the core reason as commonly misunderstood, however. It is why an overwhelming number of victims are women.
Conclusion: My Reflections as the Writer of This Piece
As a writer I have written many words that made me cry, as I dissected and accepted them.
This piece is no doubt one of the most brilliant articles I ever wrote, but it is so deeply affecting I still haven’t started processing it, perhaps.
Or maybe it is the reason for my gloomy affections nowadays.
I hesitate while sharing it, this piece is definitely very unsettling.
However, everything I wrote above is true to the best of my knowledge and although it will hurt a lot of us, the victims of those monsters hurt them much, much more than we can imagine.
It thus becomes our responsibility to accept the grave truth beside them and do our best to make sure that we raise our voices, not let any evildoing take place under our watch and hold the perpetrator accountable instead of questioning the victim’s rights.
I deliberated sending this piece to online publishing platforms, but to retain the independence of my thoughts and words and to keep contributing freely to germinating ideas in your fertile minds, I decided against it.
Thank you for staying with me despite my irregular writing schedule and supporting me through my fragile health.
Your support means the world to this small writer.
After I published The Purpose of Life piece, I received a lot of favourable feedbacks that helped me keep writing however imperfectly.
Currently I tasked my brother with making me a website that can be my own corner online, and I cannot wait to share it with you all!
Till then, though, I need your support to keep writing fearlessly, both emotionally and financially:
Donate to me on the QR given below:
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There is no obligation for you to do any of the three, but its a very proud moment for me when I do receive support and the knowledge that my words changed someone’s life / mind.
If you do decide to donate, let me know. Don’t be constrained by amount, Rs 10 from these writings matter as much as Rs 100 because it will be my first, haha.
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Have a brilliant and thoughtful day, folks!
Acknowledgements
A big thank you to my partner for not letting me quit writing, even though I whined and begged to him for it.
He hates reading but will read my pieces before I send them to you, it is with his blessings that I published this raw, uncut and impactful.
Secondly to my friend who gave me permission to share her story and read it, even if it hurt her, so that I could finalise it.
I owe you a meal when my payment is cleared, girl.
And thirdly to Krishna (not the God btw), a writer-fellow who encouraged me to express it out instead of letting it decay inside me.
My rawness scares me too, but their motivations ring louder than the fear I face when writing my heart out.
And lastly, thank you, dear readers, for reading everything I write.
Originally published on Substack. View Discussion on Substack →
