Pico de Orizaba

Pico de Orizaba
Taken from Huatusco, Veracruz, the closest town to Margarita's family's ranch.

Friday, March 18, 2016

Rape of the world; War of the sexes... Original sin; original disrespect...

On facebook a video was shared about "anti-rape" underwear... and a question was asked:  

" it is pretty sad that this type of garment even has to be considered. It begs the question: Why is this needed? What happened to society? Where are morals? Where is punishment?" 

The first thing that entered my mind watching the video was 

"I agree with Ella (woman in Spanish); it was the first thing that entered my mind that it's a shame that she must live with all of this and not be able to just walk out into the street or into a social situation relaxed...

And I continue:

And the question of what happened to society is a question that must go back thousands of years...

Another question is what happened to society in that much of the information about sexual assault and rape and self-defense and concerns about public space (lighting etc...) has come to our attention... I'm certain that it has nothing to do with the case that sexual assault and rape has increased so much as people are talking about and acting against it... 

Remember, the European Union refused the entrance of Turkey because of the rampant "assisted suicide" by parents and siblings of rape victims... Assisted Suicide? No, and nor was that what the family members and the Turkish government was claiming; someone learns that their sister or daughter was raped and they throw her off the roof, later claiming that she jumped... We can lump this into the same realm of the U.S. courts claiming that the victim of gang rape brought the violence upon herself because she entered the bar wearing a mini-skirt... 

500 years ago +/- European nobels or other large land-owners had the right to "sample" the woman who was about to marry a man who rented land from them... How many cultures required that the fathers of the bride and groom sit in upon the act of consecration of the marriage to prove that the newly wed wife allowed her husband to have sex with her... and to prove that she was "intact"...? And, if I'm correct, that ritual existed into the 20th century... How about the right to kill the wife if she doesn't give birth to a child after a certain amount of time... Before fertility tests existed, the wife was always accused of being infertile if the couple didn't have a child... And how about the right to kill the wife for infidelity... and if the husband was unfaithful? Was the wife allowed to kill the husband? 

But, back to the question of rape... 

If there actually was a rise in sexual assault and rape during the past century, how much is related to the emergence of mass media? How women are portrayed on the billboards, the covers of magazines, in commercials, movies... etc... what sells?  The woman's body is what sells...

Granted, the idea of rape is about a psychological issue of rage against women and personal insecurity of the man... reason why rapes decrease greatly when the women are more aggressive, more energetic, more confident... The rapists tend towards being insecure, which is why they must resort to "robbing" sex and not participating within the interpersonal process that may lead to consent... 

Truthfully, if I were asked what happened to the society, I would say that we must go back thousands of years, look at how the bibles were written and the modern religions were structured and why... 

How is it that God became a man who was able to mysteriously/magically inseminate Mary (without her knowledge; is this the true "original sin", since Mary was raped by god?) and now God has a son, but God doesn't have a wife and Jesus really only has a father... So, we must ask how and why did this happen to our society and what were the repercussions? Actually, what happened before that part of the story was written in which the repercussions were the writing of the story in which God gives birth to a son through his omnipotent penis? Actually, the penis isn't omnipotent, but magical. It's a magical wand... 

The question is that of respect or lack there of... The man is taught to disrespect his mother, allowing all forms of atrocities be performed against his sisters and daughters... 

Respect... 

Like the "original sin" we have the "original disrespect"... and in the end, it turns into a disrespect of ourselves as human beings... 

What is the original disrespect? 

It's the moment when the society decides that men are more important than women, justifying all forms of harm and negligence against women from the moment they are born... 

How many societies exist on this planet where the son inherits and the daughter is "sold" to another family? The son carries the family name and the daughter is just a disgrace (especially if the woman only gave her husband daughters)... Remember "Like Water for Chocolate"? How Tita was born to care after her mother? 

In how many societies are women born into servitude for their family? 

I can tell you about my wife's family... And we learn that the mothers are just as responsible as the fathers for teaching their children to disrespect women and teach sexism... My mother-in-law is horribly resentful towards my father-in-law. However, she taught her 8 sons and 4 daughters that the men are princes and the daughters are there to serve their brothers... 

Where do you begin? How does this end? 

And you may have been a bit offended that I responded to what many believe the realm of women with room only for womens' voices... 23 years ago I began attending a college that was 60% female and highly feminist; some really great womens studies classes with really awesome professors... And everywhere we walked we found ourselves being looked at with suspicion and even disdain... How many times were "doors dropped upon me" by feminist militants entering the buildings infront of me... I complained about this to one of the female house moderators who explained that intentionally not holding the door open for the following person, especially if the door will slam in his nose, is called "dropping doors"... But, this same person and others had the tendency towards calling the men who weren't stereotypically macho, SNAGs (Sensitive New Aged Guys)... What I found is that not only did my perspectives and my tendency to speak out against sexism, male-chauvanism, double standards, pop-culture tendencies, subliminal messaging... you name it... alienated me from my male peers, they also alienated me from my female peers... And I'm not talking about my college days when I wasn't so outspoken... 

The truth is that rape can be defined very broadly and that we should start considering the broad sense of the concept of rape... kind of like Tracy Chapman's "Rape of the World", although sticking towards the question of what happens to our society when we intentionally ignore or attempt towards erasing the most important truth: that ALL of us began our human developement within our mother's womb and that when we were born it was generally our mother who calmed us and fed us and made us feel safe and nutured us in so many ways and protected us and taught us who and how we are regardless of gender... That supreme court judge just like that military or police official and that dictator and that plantation owner all were newborn babies dependent upon their mother... When did we learn that that wasn't the truth? 

When was it decided that the mother or the woman didn't have so much importance; that the reason for truly respecting them was invalid? What were the repercussions? What are the consequences? 

And that's the true rape... the original rape... the constant rape... and all other rapes, although more acute and seemingly more violent, are just products of the greater rape of the world... Until we understand and "accept" what happened and until we as a human society made up of both the male and the female genders/sexes decide that we truly want to change the situation, you'll be asking the same question until we've succeeded in exterminating ourselves... Men and Women must truly want to address the truth and accept it... And that means that not only must men truly respect women, women must truly respect themselves... and desire to end the "war of the sexes"...

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