India has been killing off girls at high rates for a generation. Sex-selection abortions have produced ratios of 120 boys to 100 girls born in some rural provinces. There are already millions of young men in India with no reasonable hope of marriage.
The world heard the horrible story of the gang rape and murder of a woman in Delhi in 2012. This month a Swiss woman was gang-raped in central India. In each case the woman was with a man, who the gang beat and subdued before raping the woman in front of him.
Two cases does not make a social trend. Still, these cases, in the larger context of masses of poor, unmarriageable men, suggests to me a story that makes sense. Gang rape is extremely rare - almost all rapes, even stranger rapes, are by lone men who hide their deeds from everyone. To get a whole gang of men in a condition to rape a woman together, and in front of one another, takes unusual circumstances. And the circumstances of seeing a young woman having fun with a man seems to me the very circumstance that would madden a gang of permanent bachelors the most.
The killing off of girls, mostly by sex-selection abortion, is a great evil in the world. China, India, Eastern Europe, and the Arab countries are the worst offenders. I think they will reap the whirlwind. A rising rate of gang rapes is one the forms of that whirlwind that I think likely.
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4 comments:
Interesting thought.
It could be that not only are these men lacking in marriage partners, but they are also missing other prominent female figures in their lives that would set the standard for how to treat women.
Ditto what Stephanie said.
In a society with so little respect for girls/women, it seems not so surprising that the men have so little respect for girls/women.
I guess not all cultures are equal as some sociologist would have us believe...
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