What kind of world do we live in when young men are so proud
of violating unconscious girls that they pass proof around to their friends?
It’s the same kind of world in which being labeled a slut comes with such
torturous social repercussions that suicide is preferable to enduring them.
And yet it is: so much so that young men seem to think
there’s nothing wrong with—and maybe something hilarious about—sharing pictures
of themselves raping young women. And why not?
Calling a woman a slut sends a message that it’s open
season: you can harass her, malign her, ruin her life. It’s the same kind of
dehumanization that assumes women aren’t people, but bodies there for men’s
enjoyment—whether they consent or not.
These rapes aren’t just a problem of a few boys behaving
badly, or kids drinking too much, or parents turning a blind eye to teen
partying. Boys across North America didn’t get the idea to rape and humiliate
their female peers out of thin air; they learned it. Yes, rape is illegal; in
theory, we take it seriously. But in reality, rape jokes are still considered
funny, women are told that what they wear has some bearing on whether or not
they’ll be attacked, and the definition of rape is still not widely understood.
That’s why we still hear qualifiers like “date,” “gray,” “forcible” and
“legitimate”—because so many don’t understand that all nonconsensual sex is
rape.
Meanwhile, the notion that a rapist might kill himself
rather than endure social stigma is unthinkable. Yes, there are criminal
repercussions to raping—but even then, not often and not many; only 3 percent
of rapists go to prison, according to the Rape, Abuse & Incest National
Network. For the 97 percent who escape legal punishment, there’s little in the
way of social consequences. Rapists are given what writer Thomas MacAulay
Millar has called a “social license to operate”: “the social circumstances
[rapists] use to conceal, justify or excuse their conduct, that make it seem
grey or borderline or unknowable when in fact their conduct is intentional.” Society makes it very easy for rapists to get away with
rape. For example, a rapist may target an intoxicated woman not only because
she’ll be easier to attack, but because he knows she’ll be less likely to be
believed. That’s why whenever we blame a woman for being attacked—when we
speculate about what she was wearing, suggest she shouldn’t have been drinking
or that she stayed out too late—we’re making the world safer for rapists.
And this is how it’s come to be that in our culture, it’s
more shameful to be raped than to be a rapist but the real shame, in all of this,
is ours.
Lets try to understand the real statistics of rape in our nation with the help of provided graph.
A 'Rape Map' of India
Haryana
|
North
|
733
|
23.4%
|
6.2
|
Himachal Pradesh
|
North
|
168
|
22.3%
|
5.0
|
Jammu & Kashmir
|
North
|
277
|
8.3%
|
4.7
|
Punjab
|
North
|
479
|
36.3%
|
3.7
|
Rajasthan
|
North
|
1,800
|
26.1%
|
5.5
|
Uttar Pradesh
|
North
|
2,042
|
56.4%
|
2.2
|
Uttarakhand
|
North
|
129
|
54.5%
|
2.6
|
Chandigarh*
|
North
|
27
|
42.9%
|
5.7
|
Delhi*
|
North
|
572
|
41.5%
|
7.4
|
Andhra Pradesh
|
South
|
1,442
|
11.0%
|
3.4
|
Karnataka
|
South
|
636
|
19.8%
|
2.1
|
Kerala
|
South
|
1,132
|
15.4%
|
6.5
|
Tamil Nadu
|
South
|
677
|
20.4%
|
1.9
|
Puducherry*
|
South
|
7
|
0.0%
|
1.1
|
Arunachal Pradesh
|
Northeast
|
42
|
17.4%
|
6.3
|
Assam
|
Northeast
|
1,700
|
23.3%
|
11.2
|
Manipur
|
Northeast
|
53
|
100.0%
|
3.9
|
Meghalaya
|
Northeast
|
130
|
0.0%
|
8.8
|
Mizoram
|
Northeast
|
77
|
80.7%
|
14.3
|
Nagaland
|
Northeast
|
23
|
84.2%
|
2.4
|
Sikkim
|
Northeast
|
16
|
55.0%
|
5.6
|
Tripura
|
Northeast
|
205
|
11.9%
|
11.4
|
Goa
|
West
|
29
|
28.6%
|
4.0
|
Gujarat
|
West
|
439
|
14.7%
|
1.5
|
Maharashtra
|
West
|
1,701
|
20.3%
|
3.2
|
Dadra & Nagar Haveli*
|
West
|
4
|
0.0%
|
1.1
|
Daman & Diu*
|
West
|
1
|
2.7
| |
Chattisgarh
|
Central
|
1,053
|
24.5%
|
8.3
|
Jharkhand
|
Central
|
784
|
39.0%
|
4.9
|
Madhya Pradesh
|
Central
|
3,406
|
23.6%
|
9.7
|
Bihar
|
East
|
934
|
24.8%
|
1.9
|
Odisha
|
East
|
1,112
|
23.2%
|
5.4
|
West Bengal
|
East
|
2,363
|
11.5%
|
5.3
|
* Union Territories. Note: Excluding Andaman and Nicobar and Lakshadweep Islands. Sources: Ministry of Home Affairs, government data.
