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This Billboard In India Is Making People Angry With Its Regressive Argument To Not Rape

byPramit Chatterjee
3rd August 2018
3 minute read

India’s 2018 began with the bone-chilling cases of Kathua and Unnao. There was a lot of outrage and people from all sections of life came to protest against the injustice that was going around it. We demanded that strict action should be taken against the rapists and all those individuals who were protecting them. But eight months later, what has actually happened? The perpetrators are still smiling and making the rounds of courts and more heinous crimes are being committed.

So, as the upholders of justice had failed society, people naturally began to look at free thinkers for some sign of progress. They trusted them to use their freedom of expression to fight the battles they can’t. And what did they get in return? An insensitive billboard that reiterated the discourse around rape in India.

Twitter user @mizarcle posted a photo of a billboard by Signpost India that took a very regressive and callous approach to condemn rape. Take a look for yourself:

Image source

I’m not going to go into what the writer for this ad was thinking. However, what they did end up implying is that a woman’s humanity is not enough to stop rape. So, for the sake of everyone else’s humanity, rape should be stopped. And this obviously harks back to the hai tauba attitude in which rape victims are treated and are said that it’s because of them that the honour of the family has been diminished.

If you still think there’s nothing wrong with this and people are looking way too much into the words, then maybe Wikipedia‘s definition of rape culture will help you out.

“Rape laws existed to protect virginal daughters from rape. In these cases, a rape done to a woman was seen as an attack on the estate of her father because she was his property and a woman’s virginity being taken before marriage lessened her value; if the woman was married, the rape was an attack on the husband because it violated his property.”

 

Now, do you see what’s wrong with this ad? In an attempt to condemn rape, it’s basically presenting rape culture to the society in a new wrapping.

Considering how the ideology of the ad is rooted in the patriarchal nature of our society, many probably didn’t notice. But once it was put on the internet, Signpost India was heavily berated by netizens.

1. That seems to be the general reaction.

2. That’s the saddest part of this ad.

3. And put it on display as well.

4. True that.

5. Not according to this company.

https://twitter.com/keeeeeeeva/status/1025102031776821249

6. Saying it as it is.

7. These are the after-effects of being born in patriarchy.

8. Absolutely.

Modern hoardings on feminism and the ongoing atrocities in India have gained a bad reputation. And Signpost India’s attempts are another addition to that. But the bigger question that emerges from this is that when are we going to take a more sensitive approach while discussing the topic of rape? When are we going to exclusively take the female perspective without drawing arbitrary comparisons that have no logical basis? Because the idea is to progress and not regress.

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