The Rape accused Stanford student Brock Turner is blaming Party culture and Peer Pressure as the reason for his action. In my opinion his aim is to come out clean so he gets support from the People for his light 6 month sentence in lieu of the 14 years he should really get.

I also came across a comment from a well meaning friend of mine who posted to tell boys to stay away from alcohol and drugs and be careful because they will get in trouble if something like that happens. The point was that boys should be careful of such situations

The person also mentioned that Feminists should not be pissed at the comment. I had to write this post not because I am a feminist but because I saw that Turner’s poor cheap trick was making people rationalize as he wants them to. And it is important to debate when you see well meaning people start thinking exactly the thought that you wish to change in the society. So here was my response…

I am a Feminist but it is not about Feminism but it is about how we look at the world. The culprits in Nirbhaya case blamed it on their upbringing and Turner blaming it on party culture is nothing different from that.

Even during the Nirbhaya case there were people who said what was a girl doing out that night and that too with another guy and girls should not walk outside the house during that time.

The culprits of Nirbhaya was also intoxicated like Turner. There is no difference. Now just because Turner’s victim was intoxicated it does not make Turner’s case any less grave when it comes to Rape. Just because Nirbhaya’s culprits were not as educated and sophisticated as Turner and that Turner is a swimmer from Stanford should not reduce his sentence. Yes this is US and that was India, but crime should be looked at a humane level before it takes its position in the land’s court of law. So anyone who shouted against Nirbhaya’s rapists should not be looking looking at Turner differently.

Now Turner is not the first guy to be intoxicated in a party. Every guy who is intoxicated does not do this. Turner had issues with Drug and Alcohol before also. Now coming Peer Pressure; that is again not always a college issue, it is also a fault of parents who thrust so much pressure on kids to make them vehicles of their own unfulfilled dreams devouring them of the ability to be kids. Turner is a 20 year old guy and not a kid, he has been an adult for 2 years. He might be someone’s son but that is not relevant here just like any other case.

There is a saying “A man who treats his woman like a princess is a proof that he has been born and raised in the arms of a queen” While people applaud when they read it statement and share it along saying how true, the fact is this statement also has its issue and is very sexist in nature. It points a mother’s responsibility to teach the son how to treat a woman and completely leaves the dad off the hook. The man, the dad has an even bigger responsibility to influence the way the son will grow up to be.

Statements like “what that girl is doing in the middle of the night” is very insensitive and all the more sexist in my opinion because a girl has the same right to be anywhere in the middle of the night like a boy. We do not make girls safe by restricting their movement but by raising boys who will not act out. Asking girls to dress as per code and conduct as per rules because the boys cannot control their perversion is unfair not just to the girls but the society. We live in a society where many rapes that happen within a marriage does not surface. And yet the word ‘feminist’ is looked down upon or raises eyebrows. I am a feminist and proud to be one.

Just Want to share a post I wrote for my son on his 8th Birthday and he was born on International Women’s day. https://vinodnarayan.com/2015/03/08/international-womens-day-rahis-8th-birthday/