We hear a lot about women empowerment but rarely find anyone suggesting that men need to be empowered and reaffirmed as men. The way men are abusing women nowadays is so shameful and disgusting. Even animals protect their children, but today our children are not safe from some of these perverted males. Toddlers are being brutally raped; a woman gets raped every 20 minutes in India. What depths has our society descended today? Sexual violence is rapidly increasing against women because men in general are not taught to respect women.
If we call ourselves living in a civilised society then surely the least we can do is to teach our boys and men to respect women and this responsibility lies with the parents. A mother as a woman herself is firstly responsible to imbibe these teachings and has to ensure that the values she instills in her son and the upbringing she gives him does not lead him to offend or sexually assault any woman in society. There are instances where the way a man ogles at a woman is really ugly. Man at that time forgets that he is born from a woman. He forgets that he also has a mother, a sister, a wife or a daughter; if any other man were to stare at his female family member lustfully would he tolerate and accept it? This obscene mindset of men has to change. We have forgotten to explain to boys how to be men; this is the area where men need to be empowered.
We expect that the school should impart sex education but it is actually the job of the parents to discuss about sex authentically and with honesty. When something natural is being euphemistically sheltered, that leads to curiosity, hence pornography.
It is crucial to recognise that the surge in domestic and sexual violence is because of pornography. Majority of children, especially the boys, get access to pornographic websites either intentionally or inadvertently, and many of them get addicted to it at a young age ruining their lives living in lust.
Pornography leads to sexual aggression and in many cases even marriages have been ruined. There seems to be a more deep- rooted problem for the sexual assaults. This is because our patriarchal society has made and portrayed a woman as a sex object or symbol. It is unimaginable that even in the 21st century women continue to get sexually abused and if the violence has to be stopped against women, men first will have to learn how to treat a woman.
There is an urgent need to shift the focus on empowering men rather than focussing on women empowerment.
