… and I thought these places were progressive!

.

It is said, “East is East and West is West and the twain shall never meet”.

I beg to differ.

Meet it has, in its responses to women.

.

Mid February 2012

West Bengal, India

.

Rapes across West Bengal reported.

.

The age of victims, mostly late 30’s, single (widowed, separated, divorced) plus two minors, one of whom is deaf & dumb.

.

Profile of the aggressors : early to mid-twenties, belonging to a sexually repressed medieval culture.  The aggressors include a doctor of a Government hospital.

.

A crime occurred

and the reaction it spurred

exposed a frightening mind-set,

of the law-keepers

and the powers-that-be

in holding the victim suspect.

 .

A cover-up was sought

to cloak the rot

of cowardice and inefficiency,

by focusing on

and alluding to

the victim’s so-called impropriety.

 .

The overwhelming majority

matched those in authority

in attitude, a society disgraced!

and to put it mildly

to say it kindly

their sympathy, alas! is misplaced.

.

Exceptions – Some senior police officials, some Bengali & English media, women’s groups and the miniscule thinking polity, stand by the victims.

.

The USA

.

A woman speaks (perhaps too articulately for some people’s liking) on women’s’ sexual health and insurance for birth control pills that are used for a host of feminine diseases, at a Congressional hearing about the Obama administration’s contraception policy.  The woman speaker, stressed that many women require contraception for medical purposes.

.

Like in the case of the West Bengal rape victims, she was attacked by rhetoric that can only be described as misogynistic, vitriolic, base and crude.

.

What is this need and this compulsion

to mangle another’s reputation this way?

Is it to deter dissension

or something more grave? 

.

The attackers were both male & female and their expletive expressions are self-descriptive.

.

Implication :

.

To dis-empower a woman,

           vilify her,

                   humiliate her &

                           terrorize her

                                by attacking her sexually – be it physically and/or verbally. 

.

And there will be resounding support from men of an identical mind-set

                 ….  and from women who sell out their gender …

.

Now there are  women

who find pleasure in another’s pain

yes, there are women

who suck-up for their own gain

these are the kind of women

who are more misogynistic than the male

these are the kind of women

who their gender acrimoniously assail. 

.

Jacqui