Parththakkar12

The medical community says that it was China's weapon of biological warfare which accidentally got leaked and spread first in China and then the rest of the world!

Just a thought...

This is an interesting point. I want to add to this : It's possible to be very highly intelligent at any stage! Here's what intelligence looks at seemingly not-so-smart stages : Red : Really good con-artistry, white-collar crime, manipulation, conscious and deliberate gaslighting, really good planning and execution of crimes, professional crime, ability to keep corruption under wraps, creating and managing a cult, exploiting loopholes in the law, etc. Blue : Smart justifications for why they have the Absolute Truth, why they're a good person, why they're right, keeping the status quo

While analyzing this systemically, we need to also remember that the reasoning of most people doesn't really go much deeper and nuanced than 'Rapists should be in jail' and 'Men should be taught to respect women'. It didn't previously occur to me that your reasoning was that simplistic @Preety_India . It's not the 'one right way of looking at this issue' like you've been portraying it. I've been talking about it in much more complex systemic terms. The root causes of these issues go a lot deeper than this. Feel free to re-read my comments.

Projections don't help either tho... I conclude my piece with this.

Okay. I understand what you're saying. My point though, is that men aren't these evil masterminds orchestrating master-plans on how to oppress women for fun! Men have their own chauvinistic role to fill according to the patriarchy and are struggling to break out of it themselves. The patriarchy doesn't help men a lot either. For the most part, men are in the same boat relative to the patriarchy! Every single female issue has a mirror opposite male issue. It can't not be that way in a universe based on oneness.

First of all, they're not necessarily my issues. Secondly, good luck resolving your issues by holding up separation between male issues and female issues! They're mirror images of each other.

I'm here to tell you : it's disempowering for men too. It's an archaic system that everyone's been programmed with and very few people question. You can debate all day whether men get affected more or women (apples or oranges) but the fact remains that men are also programmed to make major sacrifices for the system. Do you really think men don't get taught to respect women?! It's very strict like you're not allowed to be sexual towards anyone. That's part of the problem.

Of course it means to empower men!! Do you really think men feel empowered by the patriarchy?! Hell no!! Men face shaming for 'being a player' or 'being a harasser' if they just initiate dating. Men or women don't really have sexual autonomy here. Of course you gotta fit into the chauvinistic mould! Initiating dating is seen as 'being disrespectful towards women'. The whole parenting strategy and value system sets you up to be the best candidate for an arranged marriage. The issue is created by the collective, but will be conclusively resolved on an individual level by those who care about it.

Women who follow the current social structure have very legit reasons for that. The patriarchy is one of the most central institutions of survival here. Family values have been a huge deal from a survival perspective. Now shifts need to happen and are happening, so the smoothest transition would be to create new systems of survival that don't require the old patriarchy. This will take a lot of consciousness from progressives and patience with the general herd, allowing them to evolve at their own pace. Believe me, I would change this overnight if I could! Newer generations are standing on the shoulders of bigger giants though so it's not fully hopeless.

We Indians really value our moral characters. Therefore if someone triggers shame in us, we will perceive it as a threat to our character and respond defensively/aggressively with moral indignation! We need to learn to give each other the benefit of doubt in such conversations, that it's all well-intentioned.

Nobody is entitled to a safe world from universal perspective! The reality is that this is a jungle, where we're all vulnerable to each other. The rules of the jungle are : Everyones out for their own. Now I may care about your safety individually, but this doesn't change the rules of the jungle! You have 2 options : either wait for the world to make it better, or initiate it yourself.

Oh man! Equal representation in positions of power is a long way coming. There's more pressing issues right now, like dowry, female infanticide, equal opportunity for education for boys and girls, the whole institution of arranged marriage, etc. I distinctly remember that when I was in school, my school had twice the number of boys than girls. That can't possibly be an accident!

I never said it's easy. We're in the dark ages and we've got a long long way to go. However, the reality is, that nobody can empower you except yourself. Empowerment is inherent and it's chosen. Maybe it means stepping into your power to reject dangerous men, maybe it means finding a way to exit this society, maybe it means finding some compromises (I don't prefer this one) with the patriarchy but choosing to do so instead of feeling like you had to. I wish we could change people!! It'd be really nice if we could. This isn't the reality we live in though. Change is gonna have to start with the individual cuz that's all you individually have control over. I understand it's really fucked up. This is what all of us are responsible for creating, men and women. I'm not saying you should become empowered. That's entirely your choice and it's valid either way. I'm just suggesting a way out of this mess!

@Preety_India I have some good news though. Those men, who don't respect women, will be scared shitless of an empowered woman! If you empower yourself, they won't go near you with a 10-foot pole. They'll go seek out someone they can control. What women can do about this is personally empower themselves and find their inherent autonomy. The more that happens, the more collective change will be effected, the more pressure will be put on men to follow suit. The power is in your hands!

This is cuz of their level of development, like they've moved past Blue into Orange/Green. The Bible is pretty archaic towards women!

This issue will fundamentally be a part of any religion. Does Christianity treat women better? I don't think so. It has dogmas like 'Women belong in the kitchen' or 'Women should be modest' or 'Women shouldn't be sluts' or 'Abortion is a sin' or my personal favorite 'Women should be nice all the time and never get angry'. Feel free to explore it though! If you get any value from western culture, I think it'll be due to their level of development and evolution.

There's a lot of fear and stigma stopping victims from speaking up. Once they do speak up though, everyone's on their side! They do see rape/harassment as bad. Also, the society here places a lot of value on justice/giving criminals due sentencing. The media here is very progressive and supportive of victims speaking up. It's not all roses for victims, like there will be victim-blaming, stigmas to face, threats from perpetrators, etc. But the only way out is to break the slience.

If it's debatable whether it's harassment or not, then people generally won't speak up. They'll wait for the woman to explicate that it really was harassment before taking action. If they don't do that, they'd be creating an unnecessary conflict with an innocent man! If it clearly is harassment though (confirmed by victim), then if it's a public place, everyone will start beating the shit out of the perceived perpetrator! Which brings me to this point : If a woman yells 'rapist' in a public place, that guy is dead! This is one of the big reasons why there's such resistance to feminism here. Not only will they perceive him to be doing the right thing, they'll join in and crack down on the perceived perpetrator. It'll be jointly perceived as 'standing up against a bad criminal'.

@Annoynymous I'll tell you what I think the mentality is : Guy sees girl who isn't 'respectable' by the patriarchial standards he's programmed with. Part of him internally degrades her for not being respectable, and part of him starts thinking about punishing her for being that way, i.e. not helping him control his sexual urges by being a 'slut'. This creates a sick cycle of getting off on 'punishing women'. I'm making my best effort to look at the dynamic without judgement! The patriarchy shames women for being overtly sexual. The reason for this is well-known to conscious people - if sex ran free, before birth-control was invented, this meant pregnancy risks and too many kids to take care of. It's designed to control all parties involved into raising kids as effectively as possible! My point is that as dysfunctional as it is, it's well-intentioned. The more we reduce the need for these control-mechanisms collectively by more education on sex, birth-control, more sexual autonomy, more economic development, etc. the more we'll be able to let go of the need for this major collective institution, the more we'll be able to resolve this!

Oh yeah! Being a rape victim is a huge social stigma. There's a lot of incentive for victims to not report it. Victim-blaming is a serious thing here socially. I was in one of the top engineering colleges here. There were separate boys halls and girls halls (which itself is fucking archaic). What drove me nuts was that the girls had to be back in their halls by 12:30 pm! This was 'for their safety'. Sex between students wasn't allowed.

Oh no! Molestation/Rape is a serious crime. If a guy sees a gang of other guys molesting/assaulting a woman the gang will run! They won't want to get in trouble with the police. At least that's what I'd expect would happen in such a situation. Rape is (or once was) punishable by death. The problem here is the culture, which is heavily patriarchial. It's Stage Blue, where nobody has sexual autonomy (especially women). Even for men, being a 'player' is considered a bad thing. Being a 'slut' for women is not considered worthy of respect and that can attract dangerous men, i.e. men who won't respect her. My hope is that once we enter Stage Orange, more emphasis will come on individuality and autonomy and we'll leave this shit behind.

There's only one solution to this issue : The people own their sexuality. For this, massive collective cultural shifts need to happen. My hope is this will happen in future generations, like 300-400 years. Until then, if you want a safer society, moving out of India is the only way. People here have relatively static worldviews and one-dimensional ways of thinking. As far as feminist campaigning goes, blood will be spilt over every feminist move. I'm a guy and I don't feel safe here myself. I can imagine it's terrifying from women's perspective. As far as I can see, the best way to be safe here is to wear clothes that fit the traditional image of a 'respectable woman' as much as you can by wearing salwar kameez, etc. (If jeans & t-shirt are considered respectable nowadays, go for it) From a safety perspective, you want to come across as respectable as possible. I know this sounds like I'm not holding men accountable here, they are. Also, don't mistake this for patriarchial moralization. This conversation is about present-day everyday safety as opposed to a feminist vision for women's safety. Unfortunately, people are respected conditionally in this society. Basic human dignity/privacy/autonomy is not a given here. #SDStageBlue. The reason I'm so resigned to the current situation is that most of India doesn't want progress on this. We're in high Blue-low Orange now and all eyes are set on economic growth. It'll take a few centuries before people become interested in taking action on this situation.

I've actually started to develop an acquired taste for Trump's antics in a 'he's so bad he's actually good' kinda way. The guy is a living meme!!

Don't our egos secretly love those though?!?!