rape: it's your fault (trigger warning for this darkly satirical video)

[niyad]

Rape: It’s Your Fault!

TRIGGER WARNING: Depictions of sexual assault and violence against women



The darkly satirical video, “Ladies, It’s Your Fault”, was released by Indian comedy collective All India Backchod (backtalk) over the weekend and has since gone viral. Starring well-known Bollywood actor Kalki Koechlin and video jockey/model Juhi Pande, the English-language video has reached over a million views on YouTube, and is accompanied on the All India Backchod Youtube page by this statement:
Every sexual assault case in India inspires a string of stupid and hateful remarks against women. This is our response to those remarks.

The video satirizes the many ridiculous suggestions for rape prevention made by Indian officials in the wake of the Delhi rape verdicts, including calling for a ban on skirts, cellphones, Bollywood movies, store mannequins, and even Chinese food. My personal favorite is the suggestion that calling your attacker “brother” will prevent him from raping you.

Koechlin’s smiling, friendly, public-service-announcement demeanor creates a sharp contrast with the brutal and provocative content of the video. At the beginning she says, “Ladies, do you think rape is something men do out of a desire for control, empowered by years of patriarchy? You’ve clearly been misled by the notion that women are people too.”

The actors appear more and more beaten-up—sporting bruises, black eyes and even a head wound—over the course of the 3 1/2-minute video. Although they never break character, the tone changes drastically at the very end when a montage of clips of Indian women saying “It’s my fault” reminds you of the seriousness behind this farcical look at sexual violence and victim-blaming in India.

Gursimran Khamba, co-founder of All India Backhod, told Al Jazeera:

The notion behind this video was pretty simple. We wanted to attack patriarchy as it exists in India. It sort of comes out every time there is a sexual assault case or a rape case. The first thing that happens, instead of focusing on the crime and looking at the perpetrator, the default for some reason is that the burden is always put on the woman.

. . . .

http://msmagazine.com/blog/2013/09/26/rape-its-your-fault/

[niyad]

1. . . . .

[mythology]

2. I heard about this on the BBC Global News podcast

I hope it does some good.

[niyad]

3. you and me both. something needs to get through to people.

[niyad]

4. . . .

[NuclearDem]

5. K&R.

Depressing, but it's a message that has to be spread. Rape culture makes the world suck.

[niyad]

6. thank you. absolutely agree.

[seabeyond]

7. ah, with all the smiling and accepting responsibility, i bet they are "good feminists". that can be

heard by the male ear. unlike all us meanies.

ya, i saw this. thanks niyad. being snarky there cause i am still working off the anger of not being a "good feminist". lol

[opiate69]

9. And yet you have no qualms...

In assuming the authority to declare other self-described feminists as not being feminists....
http://election.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=2583421

[seabeyond]

10. grow the fuck up. you do not even know what the fuck you are talking about, pass on gossip

you hear from others regardless how lame they are, and come into this thread to throw a taunt at me. your taunt or mockery does not even come close to the point i am making. you would actually have to understand a little of what is being talked about.

wtf is this following me to throw out that garbage. did you all get your feelers hurt cause we didnt obediently stand around and allow a couple of you men tell us women what feminism is? how long are we going to play this stupid ass game.

[opiate69]

21. "Gossip from others"???

Like you gleefully chiming in on a thread calling Steven Lesser "StevenLecher" and insinuating he's some kind of potential pederast? You know... The same one where you openly colluded with and encouraged iverglas to create a new account here after her oh-so-richly deserved PPR, so that she may - how did you put it?? - "nip skinner fat ass"??

[seabeyond]

22. you are a piece of work. like ... creepy. eeew. edit... second thought. nah.

i dont need no ignore to ignore, lol

[Scootaloo]

27. Wow, I missed that one

Now I have another reason to like SeaBeyond! Thanks, opiate!

[BainsBane]

28. You rock, Scootaloo

[Dash87]

30. What website is that? It looks like some horrid version of Free Republic.

My IQ just dropped a few points.

[seabeyond]

11. OMG... i just went into your link. lol lol. my FAV cartoon. of MEN feminist all over that feminism

as long as they get their porn and objectify women.

and THIS is what you are mocking me with.

lmfao.... ah ha.

bye bye

[BainsBane]

13. Who better to lecture women about feminism

What a joke.

If my uncle bob had boobs, I could treat him like shit too.

[seabeyond]

19. my uncle rog, walt and don.... do. lol. they are old. shit happens. nt

[BainsBane]

12. Would it be too much to focus on the subject matter of the OP

rather than your petty personal grudges.

More efforts to derail discussion of violence against women.

[seabeyond]

14. as long as you have a code word. nt

[BainsBane]

15. blaming women

oh the irony.

[seabeyond]

16. dammit. i forgot the honey!

[BainsBane]

17. LOL

You need to learn how to become a third wave misogynist so the boys will like you.

[BainsBane]

25. The other weird thing about the honey point

"You catch more flies with honey." Is there some reason we should want flies? Eewww.

[seabeyond]

26. further, you do not catch them with honey anyway, seems to be vinegar and grapes and wine, lol.

i think shit does a good job, but nobody thought that was funny. though ya.... i was out on a farm this weekend. i brought a car load of flies into town (left windows open). still trying to get one out of the car. not getting why i want any flies.

[ismnotwasm]

32. I'm very afraid that is all too clear that is much to ask-- for whatever reason

Pity.

[niyad]

24. your only contribution to this thread is to drag in a discussion on another topic from 6 months ago?

really? do you have nothing pertinent to add to the discussion of rape culture? )on second thought. . . .)

this is a serious topic for many of us. perhaps you would be so kind as to take your animosity somewhere else, and leave us to our discussion.

[niyad]

8. . . .

[BainsBane]

18. India and the US have a lot in common

high rates of sexual assault and low rates of conviction; blaming women for their own rape, including focusing on their clothing choices. That's rape culture folks.

[seabeyond]

20. when all this started in the media in india and U.S. was properly outraged, we heard from some of

those in india asking why the u.s. was acting as if we did not have our own very similar issue. it was about the time of three gang rapes of GIRLS in different parts of the country. pretty arrogant of us.

[uppityperson]

23. K&r and mark for later viewing

[Dash87]

31. I can't bring myself to watch this. I feel sick already and the subject matter

is too sad to even watch a satire about.

[niyad]

33. can understand that. it is a horrific subject.