Why the hatred and violence towards women?

As you read this, there might be a woman being beaten mercilessly by her husband for no fault of hers or something more gruesome. There has always been the need for an environment in which women feel safe and secure but there is no stopping to the cases of domestic violence. And not just domestic violence the spike in the cases of rape, acid attacks, wife-beating, harassment for dowry do not present a pleasant commentary to all of us. The statistics generally do not paint a correct picture by the understatement of the figures but those numbers are ridiculously high even and to add to that there are some more untold stories of pain and suppression. Some sadist men also revel in scaring a woman. A friend recounts an incident where she was leaving the parking lot of a multiplex, when two men drove right up to her and all the while leering as well. As she was scared and her hands were shaking; they drove away laughing out loud. Be it urban or rural India there is no respite for the ‘XX chromosome’. Even high profile women like Jiah Khan, Rihanna and Halle Berry among others have endured domestic abuse.

The question arises why is it that men hate women to an extent that they start beating them up? One of the reasons for this cowardly act is that it emerges from ‘Insecurity’. The ‘Insecurity’ of being taken over by a woman who wields power through different ways and is competent enough to hold their own over them. A man’s need and desire brings him towards woman and he is rather afraid of the fact that she might reduce the sense of power of which he is so proud of. Also, a man generally has powers in different verticals of life and that feeling of dominating the opposite gender seeps in rather quickly. They feel that women need to be dominated in order to establish their own swagger.

For generations people have maintained hypocrisy when it comes to virginity. A man’s mere word or even the act is accepted but if a woman does a similar thing then she is being branded as character less. What this has done is that it has made young boys feel as if there is no accountability attached to them and this thinking bereft of any logic has resulted into blaming the rape survivor for acts like rape, harassment rather than the male aggressor. The very act of sex has the male as a driving force while woman is a recipient; this allows many men to falsely believe the myth of his superiority and the woman’s submission.

Another interesting thing to be noted is that men who indulge in activities relating to physicality are termed as ‘studs’ while women in the similar scenario are termed as ‘sluts’, ‘whores’ etc. In this case, the language which we use is also derogatory.                                                                   

And many times some regressive thinking women or rather aunties I should say join this women hating club. They seem to have some bias or envy with their own gender. Don’t understand what triggers them to do that but I have seen that happening.

Religion too has made its contribution in keeping the hatred for woman a continuous activity. According to Ramayana, a woman has to be a devoted wife at any cost and that too after sacrificing her personal happiness for the sake of her husband. A man’s mere word is taken as the truth while a woman has to prove her innocence. This is the feature of the hypocritical society which we live in. Repeated exposures to these theories of a submissive woman shape the behaviour of young boys growing up. We need to accept the problem and then we can work to fix it.

For all the hatred and violence to end we need to consciously respect each and every woman in our life starting from homes to everyone in the society.