Lady Gaga’s recent music video “Till it happens to you” explores the harrowing realm of sexual assault trauma, especially when it occurs on college campus. The most debilitating aspect of on-campus rape and sexual assault is that the victims are young and vulnerable.
At this stage of life, they are exploring new horizons and that includes new relationships too. Their friendly intimacy can be easily exploited and used as a weapon against them, assuming their consent in the assault.
The sexual assaults mostly occur by someone familiar or within your comfort zone. So it leads to a sense of betrayal and makes it hard for the victim to form a meaningful bond throughout their life. It can be used as a tool to vent out vengeance, which again leaves a sense of ‘worthlessness’ behind. The body feels dehumanised, since it couldn’t defend itself against the danger.
The video is labelled as disturbing, but aren’t we done with white washing rape incidents to be easy on our sensibility?
I remember when I was young and an Indian movie called ‘Damini’ was released on the subject of rape. As kids, we were completely prohibited from even taking the name of the movie, as it was considered to be obscene and extremely explicit.
We have been trained to smooth down the creases to match sham morals.
Why can’t we start listening to their stories without mocking them or closing our ears to preserve our own peace of mind? There is no way of knowing their stories and walking in their shoes, unless we start listening to them and give them credibility.
This can help in spreading awareness, and perhaps next time something like this happens, the child will know that raise his/her voice is safe and that in itself will give them the strength to fight the assault.
from The Express Tribune Blog http://blogs.tribune.com.pk/story/29534/lady-gagas-till-it-happens-to-you-a-powerful-message-from-lady-gaga-on-rapetill-it-happens-to-you-a-powerful-message-from-lady-gaga-subbed-imane/
No comments:
Post a Comment