In this patriarchal and gendered world, rape is a stigmatized crime wherein aspersions are cast on the victim instead of the accused. This emboldens menfolk who bank heavily on a woman’s silence to preserve her honour. It is also very easy to put the blame on the woman for bringing out the beast in a man. There is a justification that she should be punished for arousing him. Afterall if there were no women, who would men rape? So maybe it is the very existence of woman that needs to be blamed for turning our holier-than-thou men into rapists.

One important issue raised time and again is related to the size of a woman’s dress. Do the dresses provoke? Are women clad in sarees and burqas not raped? We have instances where men sexually abuse animals. Should we clothe animals too? Another oft-cited reason is makeup. Rapists allege that women apply heavy makeup especially lipstick to lure men. How do you explain rape on minors, infants, old and aged women, women suffering from unsoundness of mind, women in comma or those hospitalized with severe ailments? What could they have done to catch a rapist’s fancy? Earlier men kept sex slaves, now they hire escort girls. Prostitution is the world’s oldest profession. Sugar daddies- ‘I sponsor you’ is a common western concept fast gaining in popularity in our sub-continent. Wife swapping is a notorious fact. People rape their daughters, sisters and sometimes even mothers. What causes such extreme depravity? The pathology is an obsession for sex.