Rape, what is it exactly and what can we do to prevent it?

Rape, what is it exactly and what can we do to prevent it?

Yeah, let us all take this vow. Rape is even more murderous than murder itself

One of the greatest bugs that has been biting us since the very dawn of the human race is rape. Rape, in the traditional language, forcing a woman to have non-consensual intercourse, which indeed does a tremendous amount of damage to the individual, sometimes leading her to commit suicide. Shame on those who can even think of raping someone. While punishments are really required to stop this sort of unforgivable behaviour, what's essentially more important is to understand its cause, in order to prevent it.

First of all, let me share it with you all that I always try to analyze things a bit more scientifically, because while emotions can certainly do good to us at times, it is science that acts as a consciousness-lifter (to borrow the words of Prof. Richard Dawkins, one of my favourite scientists ever) and helps us settle our issues. As such, I intend to share it with you all, what exactly is rape and why does it still happen in today's civilized world. 

At the beginning, what exactly is rape? The term is pretty common, and so is the meaning of it. Rape is a savage act in which an individual (most commonly, a man) forces another individual (most commonly, a woman) into sexual intercourse without her consent. Notice that I use the words 'most commonly', because men can get raped as well, and as per the technicalities of law, women can rape men too. But still, let us stick to the most general definition, but it is what happens in 90% of the cases reported or not reported, and especially in a country like India. The 'forcing' might be physical or psychological (blackmailing or similar issues), and essentially the lack of consent on the side of the victim is a must, as per law. But this, in my opinion, does not wrap up the true meaning of the word itself. Rape can often involve consent, in which this 'consent' is extracted from the victim herself by the rapist. In either way, rape is the most savage crime ever to have haunted humanity. 

No matter how much we mourn her, Damini
won't be back

But why do people rape? People have different opinions regarding this, and a lot today supports the idea that rape is not about anything sexual, it's just about dominance. I beg to disagree, with the careful usage of science and logic. The tendency to rape is a by-product of evolution. We have all emerged from the same roots, and our biology and psychology is pretty similar at first (environment has its effects, but a new-born baby can't be expected to learn a lot from it). Rape is essentially derived from the tendency of life itself to survive, and to self-propagate. Men are physically stronger, women are weaker, and men have been chosen by evolution to be the carriers of sperms. As such, the tendency of propagating these sperm cells has been well-developed by evolution and natural selection in men. Think about it logically. Let there be a system with 10 males A,B,C,D,E,F,G,H,I and J. And there are 10 females A`,B`,C`,D`,E`,F`,G`,H`,I` and J`. Now, let these subjects be chosen from the earliest species of human evolution, far below Homo sapiens as we are today. So, because of the randomness of nature contributing to more complex phenomena such as the desire to mate, A is the least sexually active of them all, not showing any interest to copulate. And J is the most sexually active. So, when there were no laws of nature, J could easily overpower the females for multiple times to have sexual intercourse. Because? Because J likes sex. So, J's offsprings from each of these females would have a greater chance of affinity towards sex than the average affinity displayed by each of the original 10 males. Gradually, the descendants of J who are relatively more sexually active will copulate more, producing more of their kinds, with chances of greater love towards sex. Thus, the entire affinity towards sex has been created by natural selection. Males who liked sex more produced more of their kind, and that's why there are few, very few males today who can rightly claim themselves 'not interested' in any sexual activity with a female they would be supposed to find 'attractive'. 

Stop it now!

Rape is a by-product of evolution, this theory is even more supported by the fact that some animals do have specialized organs for raping their female counterparts. Male scorpionflies have 'notal organs' which practically have no work other than helping them rape. But how is rape related to sex and evolution? The answer is clear from the logical model we devised above. Let there be 10 individuals who are offsprings of J, namely J1 to J10. Now, let us make the assumption that J1 is the least sexually active one, and there is a successive increase in the same option J10. So, J10 exploits every opportunity to have sexual intercourse with his female counterparts. And now, sex is entirely a process by its own right that is primarily targeted by evolution to produce more individuals of one kind. And since the genes of more sexually active organisms survive, we have the tendency to love sex. 

Bapi Sen, one of the real heroes of Calcutta.
We salute you time and again, sir,
for the courage you've shown against
the real criminals. 

Now, sex is most pleasurable for a male, in case of human at least. Females, on the other hand, have to suffer a lot because of it, from the very pain it causes to the even greater pain of giving birth to the baby. And today we have laws protecting the mother and the child, but in pre-historic times humans were pretty much governed by the law of the jungle. If you have more physical force or advantages, you have a greater chance of getting what you want compared to your weaker fellow-beings. So, let us say that J5 is physically the strongest of them all. So, J5 and J10 both find a female 'attractive; that is, suitable for sexual intercourse. J5 beats the shit out of J10 and takes the prize. And you can assume that the respective female they both sought could offer minimal resistance, even though she has to suffer a lot. J5 does his dirty business and gets away. Thus, children of J5, with this sexually competitive behaviour arise, and some of them are endowed with the same two features of their father, more physical strength and a suitable affinity towards sex. Now, among the offsprings of J5, those with greater physical strength and more sex drive will copulate more, producing more of their kind. 

This simple model thus explains rape, the tendency to rape others. It has its flaws, in fact many flaws, but it is primarily based on evolution, a credible scientific system of facts. Now, competition to have sexual intercourse naturally gives rise to the tendency to rape. Thus, rape is a combination of lust and the attitude of dominating the female victim. But how exactly are we supposed to counter it? 

There are many opinions, as usual. But these are briefly categorized into three major divisions: 

1. Punish the rapists, and make an example of each rapist: This isn't a solution. While I'd like to punish them very much, but simply doing it will not stop more rapes. 

A scorpionfly

2. Prevent women from going out: This isn't a very good solution either. But yeah, I do support that there should be some precautions every woman should take. For example, in the case of the Park Street Rape incident in Calcutta, how can we even sympathize with the woman who leaves her children alone in her apartment and goes to hang out with a couple of drunkards she met at a bar, and that too at that late hour of night? The Delhi rape incident on the other hand is very tragic, but what we should learn is that, women should understand that taking unnecessary risks isn't going to help. When a female just tries to show that she doesn't give a rat's ass about males, she is attracting glances from potential rapists who would gladly want to dominate her. Thus, it is not wise on the womens' part to show unnecessary carefree and 'don't give a rat's ass about males' nature, because that would only make the situation worse. What has happened, has already happened. That doesn't make every man bad. Many brave men like the late Bapi Sen of Calcutta gave away their very lives to protect women from harassment, what about them? Please don't over-generalise. 

Women are divine, and divinity shouldn't be
wasted or assaulted thus. Learn to love, stop rape. 

3. More education and understanding regarding rape: This is the most crucial part. There should be a sense of pride in every man, because whatever nature intended us to do, it made us the protector of our wives or lovers. Why? Because a healthy offspring would only be born off a willing (in fact, glad to become) mother and a caring father. As education lifts our level of understanding of nature, we are gradually managing to combat primitive urges with the 'Real I' or 'greater, conscious self', the pre-frontal cortex of our brain. This godly and divine part of the brain has made us humans, who know the power of reason. There are three levels of the human brain: 

• Reptilian brain, the most primitive part of human brain. It drives the sex lust, and in fact it misfires (in today's environment), producing the urge to rape others.
• Mammalian brain, that drives emotions. It's less powerful than reptilian brain, but is nonetheless important. Basal urges to copulate originates from here, and it tries to logically justify your behaviour "Hey, that gal is alone and none's there. God, she's hot and young, why not just have a good time with her?' (not even caring about what happens to her, after that). Only human beings are known to be self-conscious, that is, we have a theory of mind. So, we know that the other individuals like us are similar to us in every way. They can experience pain. But this mammalian brain just doesn't want to take into account the sufferings of the victims. Why? Because it was, most probably, developed before the evolution of self-consciousness in human beings. Not all mammals are humans, after all. We aren't dogs, so we shouldn't rape. 
• Primate brain, the logical reasoning part. This is the seat of intelligence, that has made us the masters of this planet. Primate brain is divine, experience its beauty in the fact that I'm writing these things now and you're reading them. We're logical, we're superior, we're humans. We're not just animals, we're intelligent animals. And intelligence must override the animalistic urges in us. This reasoning part of the human brain is the best of them all, and urges us not to rape. But in people like Ram Singh, it's not very much developed. Why? Because of the lack of education. So, education, proper upbringing and freedom of mind are required to properly harness the power of this brain. 

Remember that we're humans. Be proud to be a human, be proud to be a man. As a man, my male friends (yeah, I'm male myself, as evident from my name), you should try to be chivalrous protectors of the honour of women. 

Let us make this world a better place. Sex is a wonderful gift of nature, let's use it thus. It can be channeled to form the rosy feeling of love, it can act as a divine knot that ties together two individuals. It can help you compose poetry for your lover. So, always use it thus. And one day, we'll really see a world free from the tyranny of rape.