Metaphors and analogies – we use them a lot every day in our conversations. When we use the right ones at the right time in the right way, they help communicate easily and add clarity and precision. When it comes to clear and meaningful communication, metaphors and analogies are almost hard to beat. There is nothing wrong with metaphors and analogies, by all means, but some of them are distasteful, clumsy, and sickening. Let me give you an example - Some people use the word "rape" to callously to refer to something bad, or they draw parallels between “rape” and anything and everything bad or inconvenient.
When the word "rape" is flippantly used, it trivializes the real-life experience of rape survivors across the world. Remember how the world cracked up to the ‘balatkar’ joke in “3 Idiots”? It reeked of misogyny and sexism, but it never raised any eyebrows back then. Cracking such jokes have become the new normal these days, and this MUST stop. In NO contexts can such things be said. Yet, even now, they find their way through the conversations of some people out there.
It is a pity that some people still find it hard to understand why rape jokes and metaphors are a no-no. Rape is a horrendous crime. We should not trivialize it with such metaphors and analogies and disregard the physical and mental trauma that the survivors go through. And if one is saying, "I have the right to free speech!", that person should take a moment to gauge the impact of that joke on a sexual assault survivor. When rape jokes and metaphors become a part of day-to-day conversations, listeners get conditioned to ignore and normalize sexual assaults. Such conversations perpetuate rape culture and defend the behavior of the abuser as ‘normal’ and ‘regular’. Can we let that happen? NO, we cannot! When someone draws attention to this sexist behavior, the world around feels that he/she is blowing things out of proportion.
A few months back, an actor who prides herself of being self-made and claims to have a voice of her own made an appalling statement on national television. She compared the demolition of her office space to being raped, and said: “I felt like I was raped, I felt violated mentally and psychologically.” Is it right to proffer an argument and find justification by drawing such analogies? No matter how grievous her pain is, it is never right to compare it with a horrific and heinous crime like rape. We have seen many other instances where both the well-known and the not-so-well-known have used the rape jokes and metaphors to make their point. A so-called superstar once compared his strenuous shooting experience to the condition of a "raped woman". How can they simply belittle the extent and danger of this crime? I am still not able to wrap my head around this. When they try to draw distasteful comparisons between a difficult situation they have been through and a horrendous crime like rape, they are making a mockery of every woman, man, and child who has been a victim of this horrifying and unpardonable crime. Such analogies and metaphors dial down the intensity and criminality of the crime. They also make the victims hesitant to opening up or seeking help.
According to the National Crimes Records Bureau (NCRB), India recorded 88 rape cases every day in 2019. 2020 is no different. Hardly a day goes by without reading news reports on rape sexual violence against women and children. Yet, some people irresponsibly use rape analogies and jokes now and then to prove their points. It is high time to raise our collective voices against the use of rape jokes and metaphors. We should stop this right away!