Raising a boy child..

Enough has been said about how girls need to behave, dress, talk or when they should be married off.. From the kangaroo court Khap leaders to the elected kangaroo representatives, all have an opinion on girls. But the real issue is the boys, how do we raise them ? Do we raise them to respect and honor women just like they need to respect all other human beings.

I think that is what the society needs to answer.


There is simply no point in having stringent laws on eve teasing or rape alone. Laws & regulations work only to a certain extent.

The Nirbhaya incident brought in a lot of publicity and many many people were up in arms, holding candles and protesting against violence on women. But such symbolisms are forgotten soon. A cultural change needs to be in place. Schools needs to take up gender sentisation, parents need to have such discussions at home. Then we would not be arguing what drove a 17 year old minor to brutally rape a young girl as what happened in the Nirbhaya case.

Has he grown up seeing girls being abused & therefore he assumes that it is ok to do that ? does he get provoked by young girls being treated equal in schools, heading to work / college etc ? does he think that such girls need to know that they can be overpowered easily ?  What drove him to this brutal act. I think that is a question that we citizens / parents need to answer.

Recently there was an argument about how movies and item numbers in movies downgrade women. I'm not so sure of item numbers, but a common theme in movies is

" Boy like girl, girl does not like him. Boy tries to woo her continuosly either through song / dance more or forever irritating her with notes, flowers etc, he lets his friends know of intentions and they also help and very soon she starts liking him ". Now  this entire movie story fits perfectly into eve teasing. Is it possible that a young boy who sees this movie starts thinking that it is perfect in this manner to woo a girl ?

Or another story line is  " Boy likes girl, girl resents him, Boy tries to molest her as he knows that she does not like his advancements".. Wow.. how many indian movies show a rape scene.. very common of villains to rape women and hero to either save the damsel in distress or extract his revenge and therefore become a hero...

Now how many english movies do we see where such kind of wooing is done, or rape scenes in english movies ? Can we say with a clear conscious that a typical half literate young man will not be influenced by all this in movies ?

Crimes against women will reduce only through a removal of a deep seated malice in our society which is wrapped in illiteracy, paternal structures, and willingness to help others.
 

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