abdulbarijan
PDF THINK TANK: ANALYST
- Joined
- May 15, 2010
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A brief Background.
"For the powerful, crimes are those that others commit." These thoughtful words by Professor Noam Chomsky, while written in a political/strategic context, however hold true even in a social context.Let us take the example of an offense such as cat calling or Eve teasing, the usual excuse goes like this " She was dressed provocatively, hence deserved it". The instigator in such a case, rationalizes such behavior by putting all the blame on the victim. For that individual, the problem is not that he/she went on and harassed another individual, but that, the harassed individual wasn't wearing the right clothes.
Going back a century or so, when slavery was still alive and well in what we call the "modern world", we can see examples of extreme brutality when it comes to the treatment of slaves and subsequent justifications of such actions. Slaves were subjected to whipping, shackling, hanging, mutilation and branding etc. While such behavior is (thankfully) seen as a crime today, just a century ago, it was a legitimate and justifiable practice by the people in power.
One particular, rather disgusting aspect of this crime against humanity was the trivialization of human suffering, where lynching postcards were sold in stores, carrying pictures of lynched black people on one end and a space for family exchanges at the back. For example.
[Handwriting reads: This is where they lynched a negro the other day. They don’t know who done it. I guess they don’t care much. I don’t, do you?]
An excerpt from the book "Photography on the Color line" author Shawn Michelle Smith talks about how lynching of slaves was justified;
A society with a broken moral compass : Patterns.
The society of the the America where slavery was legal, normal and justified, represents a society that had a broken moral compass. A moral compass, in it's most basic form is the scale an individual uses to judge between right and wrong.Based on the given material, we can draw out some distinct patterns that are present in societies in such states and absolutely need a thorough introspection.
The 21st Century Slave.
While such patterns affect many groups living in the society. However, in this section, let' us ask the question; "What is a certain, sizeable group in our population for which all the four patterns exist in practice and are socially acceptable?"
I can only think of one group that satisfies all four of the identified patterns for which all the identified behaviors are socially acceptable as well i.e. MEN. To illustrate what I mean, I'll be using ACTUAL QUOTATIONS from this very forum (a forum with very respectable and educated people, which I won't name) on different threads along with some twitter posts and a video. So based on the opinions of our educated members, we have;
1.Victim Blaming
On a thread about a man being sexually harassed, following were some of the comments;
2.Dehumanizing practices against people of the less powerful "other group" with no social/legal consequence
While thankfully, there are legal consequences and ramifications for such behavior, however the social acceptance is an entirely different thing.
On a thread about a woman who threw acid on her husband for a second marriage.
3.Trivialization and celebration of acts of violence against the "other"
On a thread about a woman chopping off her husbands legs
4. Acts of violence against a particular group, being a source of entertainment.
On a thread about a group of woman sexually harassing a man
A response to a story of a woman, forcing a man to have sex on gun point. Response of various women on twitter.
Summary/ Result: While men are considered to be the individuals that hold and control all the power in a society, we tend to forget that, that is a very select group of people. If there is an extreme where men hold all the power, there also exists another extreme, where men hold no power what so ever. In fact the condition is such, where direct parallels can be drawn compared to the type of behavior patterns black slaves faced in the Americas. Therefore, a serious, through introspection is the need of the hour.
"For the powerful, crimes are those that others commit." These thoughtful words by Professor Noam Chomsky, while written in a political/strategic context, however hold true even in a social context.Let us take the example of an offense such as cat calling or Eve teasing, the usual excuse goes like this " She was dressed provocatively, hence deserved it". The instigator in such a case, rationalizes such behavior by putting all the blame on the victim. For that individual, the problem is not that he/she went on and harassed another individual, but that, the harassed individual wasn't wearing the right clothes.
Going back a century or so, when slavery was still alive and well in what we call the "modern world", we can see examples of extreme brutality when it comes to the treatment of slaves and subsequent justifications of such actions. Slaves were subjected to whipping, shackling, hanging, mutilation and branding etc. While such behavior is (thankfully) seen as a crime today, just a century ago, it was a legitimate and justifiable practice by the people in power.
One particular, rather disgusting aspect of this crime against humanity was the trivialization of human suffering, where lynching postcards were sold in stores, carrying pictures of lynched black people on one end and a space for family exchanges at the back. For example.
[Handwriting reads: This is where they lynched a negro the other day. They don’t know who done it. I guess they don’t care much. I don’t, do you?]
An excerpt from the book "Photography on the Color line" author Shawn Michelle Smith talks about how lynching of slaves was justified;
In the book "White slave crusades: Race, gender and anti-vice activism, 1887-1917" author Brian Donovan states;
While pictorial evidence of such occurrences is too graphic to post here, however, here is a cropped picture of certain white spectators, smiling from ear to ear while attending a lynching.
A society with a broken moral compass : Patterns.
The society of the the America where slavery was legal, normal and justified, represents a society that had a broken moral compass. A moral compass, in it's most basic form is the scale an individual uses to judge between right and wrong.Based on the given material, we can draw out some distinct patterns that are present in societies in such states and absolutely need a thorough introspection.
- Victim blaming: occurs when the victim of a crime or any wrongful act is held entirely or partially responsible for the harm that befell them
- Dehumanizing practices against people of the less powerful "other group" with no social/legal consequence e.g. lynching, bondage, and mutilation etc.
- Trivialization and celebration of acts of violence against the "other" e.g. in the case of slavery days, using postcards with slaves being lynched.
- Acts of violence against a particular group, being a source of entertainment.
The 21st Century Slave.
While such patterns affect many groups living in the society. However, in this section, let' us ask the question; "What is a certain, sizeable group in our population for which all the four patterns exist in practice and are socially acceptable?"
I can only think of one group that satisfies all four of the identified patterns for which all the identified behaviors are socially acceptable as well i.e. MEN. To illustrate what I mean, I'll be using ACTUAL QUOTATIONS from this very forum (a forum with very respectable and educated people, which I won't name) on different threads along with some twitter posts and a video. So based on the opinions of our educated members, we have;
1.Victim Blaming
On a thread about a man being sexually harassed, following were some of the comments;
"Channdaa Aurr lagao Tari road k chakkar"
On a thread about a woman who threw acid on her husband for a second marriage.
On a thread about a woman chopping off her husbands legs
2.Dehumanizing practices against people of the less powerful "other group" with no social/legal consequence
While thankfully, there are legal consequences and ramifications for such behavior, however the social acceptance is an entirely different thing.
On a thread about a woman who threw acid on her husband for a second marriage.
On a thread about a woman who hired gunmen to teach her alleged "cheating husband" a lesson.
On a thread about a woman chopping off her husbands legs
3.Trivialization and celebration of acts of violence against the "other"
On a thread about a woman chopping off her husbands legs
On a thread about a group of woman sexually harassing a man
i doubt this really happened, but if it did, lucky sob!
Really?Lucky victim
4. Acts of violence against a particular group, being a source of entertainment.
On a thread about a group of woman sexually harassing a man
A video showing different types of violence men face which are laughed at in general and in popular culture. Includes the story of a woman cutting off her husband's penis as the hosts make jokes and the entire audience laughs.Made up shiat
Summary/ Result: While men are considered to be the individuals that hold and control all the power in a society, we tend to forget that, that is a very select group of people. If there is an extreme where men hold all the power, there also exists another extreme, where men hold no power what so ever. In fact the condition is such, where direct parallels can be drawn compared to the type of behavior patterns black slaves faced in the Americas. Therefore, a serious, through introspection is the need of the hour.
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