#rape and mutilation cases EVERYDAY

[littlegildedswallow]

I'm 5 feet tall with a delicate build, and I work out regularly. No amount of body-building changes the fact that the average man could easily wrap his entire fucking hand around my neck and EASILY choke me to death, or break my wrists or my fucking spine. That terrifies me. It terrifies me than in a real one on one fight to the death, I'd probably be the one dying. I'm thinking of that video where a woman stabbed a guy with a big knife like 15 times, and he still kept fighting, whaling on her. What the fuck are those tiny "self defense" blades supposed to accomplish ? My best bet would probably be to slice his jugular or push my thumbs into his eye sockets, but how the fuck am I supposed to do that if he's restraining my arms. It TERRIFIES me that I can't fight, and even if I could, I'd probably not stand a chance against the average man, and definitely not if there were more than one.

Do any of you know self defense tips that ACTUALLY work? No convoluted moves. If a brute has got me in a fucking chokehold, I won't be thinking about the steps of popular self defense moves. I'll be panicking, losing strength and consciousness. The way i see it, my best bet would be carrying a fucking dagger, but even that requires intense training to learn how to use efficiently.

[onyxheartbeat]

So many men all of a sudden sooo concerned with domestic abuse because of Johnny Depp, blowing up social media. Never heard so many speak up before, when women are getting beaten, stripped of their rights, raped, mutilated, having their cases dismissed, etc. everyday around the world. Hmmm 🤔. Wonder why. Could it be they really don’t give a fuck about abuse and just want to have a new target for their anger against women? I think so 💁🏻‍♀️ Making fun of the MeToo movement, like that will help men who’ve been abused? Zero logic.

[oddlyhale]

As much as I begin to see the horrors of RWBY fndm and how crazed BB fans can be, there'll probably be no comparison to the psychotics I had to deal with in the HH fndm.

While I can totally find myself being tolerant with all RWBY ships, there's something territorial when it comes to HH ships. It's a different beast on its own, especially with the popular artists that can and will control their fanbase.

Boy do I have a tale of 2020 that had me deal with the mental gymnastics these wild shippers put me through. The sheer hypocrisy, the fear fans had of standing up to them, the collective harassment.

In a synopsis, before we start:

Hi, my name is Hale.

Alfa and Alex are probably the most psychotic people I’ve ever met when it comes to my online daily life. I used to think my ex-friends were the bane of my existence, but Alfa and Alex started making me think just how angelic my exes were in comparison.

So let’s begin.

When I first met the Double AAs, it was Alex first (awhile back in late-June 2020 during Vaggie Week) but it was indirect. I was on my Instagram when I was tagged by a random user in something Alex had drawn. This was when I first saw the kill art of Vaggie. I was so upset that I had yelled at this random user for tagging me, as well as showing it via screencap on my twitter, as a warning to never do this to me to my followers. Keep in mind, I had censored Alex’s name from the screencap, not the random user.

However, Alex saw this somehow and became hysterical, thinking I was targeting him for what he drew. This caused an uproar of his fans to come attack me, and it did cause me to become scared and get away from my account. Alfa decided to insert herself into the mix, but I didn’t care enough for her to say anything. It was mostly Alex and how much he was “scared” and cried about the “fandom being so hateful and scary.” He went private for a while I believe, but Alfa was still going hard at me and sending more of her fans to come harass me.

If Alex ever says he is a strong and brave man, don’t believe him. He fears the HH fandom.

Anyhow, after Alfa’s fans had done their best to gaslight me, I didn’t give in. In fact, I made amends with the random user that tagged me. Somehow they assumed I would like the art of Vaggie being killed, which was childish to even believe in. Nonetheless, I forgave them, and we moved on from there.

But even when we both resolved this together, Alfa and Alex decided that it would be fun to make this “kill Vaggie art” a meme, or trend. With their huge followings combined, they were able to get their artist fans to join in and start creating so much hate art of Vaggie. Many of them drew her head being cut off, mutilated, raped and cheated on.

Alfa and Alex adore gaslighting the hell out of people. While they draw such hideous things, they will go ahead and say, “but it’s just fiction, it’s not real,” and call you psychotic for even caring so much about their bad behaviour. I can only imagine what Alfa’s husband goes through everyday since Alfa loves to make people second-guess themselves often.

Keep in mind, Alfa and Alex are the same people who will cry and shake when their fictional ship is invalidated and written out. They often wish nothing good for Viv and her team that are providing these ungrateful children with the show and content they so badly want. It shows you just how privileged they had grown up as children, doesn’t it?

This wasn’t fun, it was horrible. I didn’t realize just how many toxic people existed in the HH fandom until this “trend” began to spread.

But the funny thing that I'll never forget is how apeshit Alfa went when I had the audacity to draw Alastor plus sized. She accused me of being a pedophile, supporting MAPs. Even though she leans towards being pro-ship (likes incest, OK with lolicon, will condone drawing necophilia.) But me? Having the sheer audacity of drawing Alastor fat? It burned her so bad.

As well, this was being pushed on the VAs during a small livestream. The chat wouldn’t stop asking, “what do you think of the Vaggie kill art going around?” Of course the VAs ignored these questions, but it was really rude to even ask these things. Especially when Vaggie’s VA was in the same livestream.

But then this trend was proven to be a lie, by Alex’s own words. He dropped the ball in a one-off conversation with an anti that “he only created this to get back at the Chaggie shippers.” So retroactively, this trend was worthless.

What also began to start becoming obvious was that Alfa was too afraid to do anything on her own, and thus, she will recruit some darlings to defend her. Alfa seems to have more defenders than she has any confidence to defend herself, and when she has no choice but to stand up for herself, she will buckle and hide. She is weak, is what I had learnt.

I decided to just ignore Alex and Alfa as much as I could. With a friend though, I was given updates of what was happening on the Double AAs’ side in the meantime, and it’s amazing to see just how vile they can be with their own fans and haters. Especially with their new puppy named Salty. (I think that’s their name, another weak ass bitch.)

As months went by, the major event that stirred from the AA camp was when they were harassing Pastel Sky. This would be where the big reveal of just how horrible the AAs and their friends truly are, when they have nobody to harass except for kids. HH has a wide audience of children involved in this fandom, hence why many other artists keep saying we should try to be good examples for them, and keep them safe. But not for the AAs.

Pastel was ruthlessly attacked by them and it was all unwarranted. What they were angry about was that Pastel had the nerve to have negative opinions when it came to AAs, and they broke their own rule of “don’t like then block.” Even Galactic Potatoes (Spuds) would go out of their way, again, to gaslight Pastel into believing that what attacks she received on Twitter was allowed, because Pastel was asking for it. Spuds is well-known to gaslight, a thing they had learnt from the AAs quite often.

Pastel was a minor at the time, and it really doesn’t matter if Pastel was just 17. I don’t care if Pastel was only 17 and that “well she’s almost 18,” because regardless of age, harassment is not the answer. Follow by that, fighting with minors is actually fucking stupid and braindead. Spuds tried very hard to justify why attacks were OK, and that Pastel “should learn” how to grow up. I then learnt that Spuds went into hiding afterwards.

That was until the Double AAs’ discord chats were exposed, showing that they were practically mouth-watering at Pastel’s pain, romanticizing her apparent abuse and trying to convince each other how her punishment on Twitter was correct. Even one (I believe was Jay because he loves me and wants me back) wished that I would die. This would be the third time he asked me to die indirectly, which justifies my points on how toxic and abusive they are.

This entire event seemed to have unraveled a new wave of truths, and it’s sad to know it had to take a literal minor to have their masks fall off.

In 2021, Alex was exposed to be a thief. Stealing commission money for “stress pills.” If Alex is on a path of drug addiction, I hope it’s not the case. That’s a terrible place to be, and hopefully he’ll be clean and grow up for once. I still don’t care enough about Alfa, after now knowing all she is, is just a dramatic housewife with nothing better to do in her life. Perhaps if they just got jobs instead of stealing money from fans, they’d be leading well-productive lives.

From what I understand, many of the toxic fans of the Double AAs have either dropped HH fandom, or have deleted their accounts. Good, I hope they stay gone. The fandom deserves better, not trash.

Needless to say, the best advice I can give to those in the HH fandom that come facing the Double AAs is to not be afraid of them.

Over time, once you get used to their behaviour, you come to realize that this is their default. They’re not likable, they’re not nice, and they aren’t appreciative of one singular thing you do for them (hence Alex stealing from his own fans.)

It’s their M.O., they are just that cruel. So don’t fear them, but challenge their behaviour. Don’t stoop to their level of wanting to draw hateful art, though, that will fuel them. Talking down to them like their idiots always works like a charm.

Anyways, thanks for reading.

If anybody from the Double AAs’ camp ever finds this and reads it, I just wanna say that you are doing a great job, sweety. Thanks for proving me right by the new year. I appreciate the honesty for once. It only took you a year, just think of what other things you’ll do in the next year.

[99liners]

hathras rape case [TW: RAPE, HORRIFIC DETAILS OF THE INCIDENT, MUTILATION]

(slide credit to: faye dsouza)

so this happened. this is everyday in India. EVERY DAY some girl gets raped and this is how the authorities react. the authorities, the police, the government, the politicians literally take out fucking rallies and protests in FAVOUR of the rapists in this country.

she was 20.. her spine was broken, her body was torn, beaten, her tongue was cut out, her body paralysed and at the end, it broke her spirit. she STILL identified and NAMED her rapists and yet they're walking scot free.

and after all this, even her dead body wasn't handed over to her parents because God knows what more evidence were they hiding.

they're proving time and again that is the JUSTIFIED and LAWFUL treatment of LOWER CASTES, DALITS, MUSLIMS and WOMEN in this country. thank you for making me feel safe. it's deeply appreciated (:

congratulations 🎊 Indians, you guys have done it. bet everyone so safe for their daughters, wives, girlfriends, mothers in this country. we're so proud. this is the Ram Rajya, right? Lord Ram must be so proud of you guys, he must be shedding tears of joy.

raping someone sounds like a charm in new India, right?

[creepingsharia]

A Month of Islam in America: March 2020

While much of the civilized world was put on lockdown, the Wuhan coronavirus did not slow down the jihad in America in March.

This month’s report is brought to you by, and because of, America's Early Apologists for Islam. Just a sampling of what we found.

Click any link below for more details and a link to the original source.

Jihad in America:

Minnesota: Pakistani Doctor in U.S. on H1B Visa Arrested for Attempting to Join ISIS

Muhammad Masood, 28, charging him with attempting to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization. Masood, who was a licensed medical doctor in Pakistan, was formerly employed as a Research Coordinator for the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, under an H-1B Visa.

California: Muslim Confesses to 2017 ‘Allahu Akbar’ Shooting Rampage; Killed 3 Men Because They Were White

 “I just found some white men to kill,“ said Kori Ali Muhammad in his confession to police.

Missouri: Muslim Convert Sentenced to 19 Years for Plotting ISIS Attacks in Kansas City

Hester, aka “Mohammed Junaid Al Amreeki,” said he wanted a “global jihad.”

Long Island: Muslim Woman Gets 13 Years for Providing Material Support to Islamic State

Zoobia Shahnaz provided more than $150,000 to ISIS and attempted to leave the U.S. to join ISIS. 

Arizona: Muslim Sentenced to 67 Months for Witness Tampering, Lying to FBI in Garland Jihad Investigation

Abdul Khabir Wahid committed the offenses during FBI investigation of ISIS-related attack on Muhammad Art Exhibit and Contest in Garland, Texas.

DC: Dept of Defense Arabic Linguist Arrested, Gave Names and Photos of Informants and Techniques to Hezbollah

Mariam Taha Thompson, 61, formerly of Rochester, Minnesota, was charged today in the District of Columbia with transmitting highly sensitive classified national defense information to a foreign national with apparent connections to Hizballah, a foreign terrorist organization that has been so designated by the Secretary of State.

California: Mother of San Bernardino Jihadi - Who Killed 14 - Agrees to Plead Guilty to Destroying Evidence Related to Her Son’s 2015 Terrorist Attack

Plea agreement will allow her to serve no more than 18 months of a 20-year sentence.

Rafia Sultana Shareef, a.k.a. Rafia Farook, 66, the mother of Syed Rizwan Farook, the male shooter in 2015 San Bernardino terrorist attack, has agreed to plead guilty to a federal criminal charge of intending to impede a federal criminal investigation by shredding a map her son generated in connection with the attack. She has agreed to plead guilty to a one-count information charging her with alteration, destruction, and mutilation of records.

California: Man intentionally drove SUV onto sidewalk striking 4 teens in Burlingame

Omeed Adibi was booked on charges of attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon and driving under the influence.

Texas: Federal court affirms conviction of jihad recruiter behind Islamic terror attack on Texas free speech event

Erick Jamal Hendricks was accused of trying to recruit people to conduct terrorist attacks in the name of the Islamic State group. A jury convicted Hendricks in 2018 on charges of conspiracy and attempt to provide material support and resources to a foreign terrorist organization.

A federal appeals court in Ohio has affirmed the convictions of a North Carolina man in a terrorism case.

More Jihad in America:

Brooklyn, New York: Man Arrested For Making Violent Threats Against Jews and Blacks

‘Jew fucking guy…I told him I wanna another holocaust killing 60 million jews…The era of whites (jews) and negros are long gone’

NYPD announced the arrest of  ALLAMBERGEN KUDAYBERGENOV, a/k/a “Allambergen Kuday Bergenov,” charged with one count of making interstate threats, one count of using false immigration documents, and one count of aggravated identity theft.

New York Muslim Brotherhood Activist: "If I am infected [with coronavirus], I will go to the Egyptian consulate here” (VIDEO)

Illinois: Preaching the Islamic Conquest of the World... in Suburban Chicago

Arizona: ‘Clearest example of a jihadi  recidivist in U.S.’ who died waging jihad in Texas had been bailed out of jail by Democrat candidate and CAIR-AZ founder (and she is running for elected office)

Government Failure to Stop Jihad:

OIG Report: FBI missed chances to stop U.S. terrorists

Pentagon did not do enough to vet foreign military students, DoD intel official tells Congress

Targeting “Violent Extremism” Means Targeting Nothing – Targeting Nothing Means Losing the War

Legal Jihad in America:

Missouri: Somali Refugee Teen Brutally Assaults Neighbor, But Walks Free After Muslim Prosecutor Drops Charges

Michigan: Judge Dismisses Another Charge in Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) Case

Previous monthly reports here.

Immigration Jihad also known as Hijra:

Texas: Bangladeshi Pleads Guilty, Smuggled Illegal Alien Muslims to the United States

Afghan Refugees Still Arriving in U.S. Despite Coronavirus Lockdown on Americans

Rape Jihad & Islamic Slavery in America - courtesy of Mass Immigration:

New Jersey: Muslim Woman Gets Less Than 6 Years Prison for Enslaving Sri Lankan Girl for More Than 9 Years!

Mosques - the incubators of jihad in America:

New Jersey: Paterson passes Muslim-proposed law allowing Islamic call to prayer (5 times a day, everyday)

Election Jihad in America:

California: Grandson of Islamic Terrorist Wins Democratic Primary Election

 Illinois: Daughter of Muslim serving 168 years for Libyan-funded terror plots in U.S. running for Congress

 Pakistani/Islamic Lobby took over Bernie Sanders 2020 presidential campaign sabotaging his aspirations

North Carolina: First Muslim woman elected to Durham County commission - unopposed

USA: 92% of New Muslim Candidates Won’t Express Support for Constitution

Jihad in Education:

American universities receive billions in undocumented funds from Arab regimes in violation of federal law

Fraud for Jihad:

Missouri: Another Doctor Indicted in Oxycodone, Medicare Fraud Scheme

Please share this and other posts on your social media sites.

Previous monthly reports here.

[criticalotterstudies]

To Dworkin's admirers, she was a hot-rod combination of martyr and holy warrior, a survivor of sexual abuse who dared to speak truth to power. To her critics, she was a raging harpy who rose up out of nowhere, intent on taking away their porn and (some of the male ones vaguely suspected) their manhood. With law professor Catharine MacKinnon she wrote an ordinance (passed by the city of Indianapolis) that defined pornography as a kind of speech crime that violated the civil rights of all women -- the law was later overturned as unconstitutional. She testified before the infamous Meese Commission on pornography, forming what many saw as a dangerous alliance with the radical right. She was said to have written that all heterosexual intercourse was the equivalent of rape, though she denied that the passage in question amounted to such a claim.

Dworkin was a gifted, galvanizing communicator, both in print and as a public speaker. She was the Jonathan Edwards of radical feminism, capable of calling ecstatic souls to her cause, transforming her listeners and readers in ways many of them never forgot, even if they eventually came to disagree with her. (See Susie Bright's eloquent eulogy for an example.) She could inspire impromptu Take Back the Night marches and the instant formation of anti-violence groups, sincere efforts to do something to check the abuse that real women really do suffer every day, even if the response to it in this case was more ideological than practical.

But Dworkin was also a pioneer of a particular and pernicious type of rhetoric, one currently being used much more effectively by talk radio hosts and the extreme political right. Here's a classic example: During the Monica Lewinsky scandal, Dworkin quarreled with feminists who did not consider Bill Clinton's sexual encounters with the White House intern to be sufficiently exploitative to merit impeachment. A principled, reasonable argument could be made that Clinton's behavior was unethical, but Dworkin was never about reason. "What needs to be asked," she told a British journalist, "is, was the cigar lit?"

The statement (it seems too sensationalistic to be called a quip) is pure Dworkin: a ghoulishly creative melodramatic flourish that has little bearing on the matter at hand. Clinton may have acted sleazily, with a callous disregard for the emotional consequences of his actions on a young woman who was too naive and eager-to-please to grasp them herself, but no one suspects or has accused him of sadistically torturing her. Yet Dworkin was never able to enter into a conversation about morality unless the stakes were escalated to the stratosphere. The everyday realm where most of us commit our minor sins against, and injuries to, each other didn't really interest her. She only cared for the Grand Guignol.

Dworkin came out of and contributed to a subculture of feminism that specialized in this kind of irresponsible overstatement. A certain style developed: Throw out a handful of lurid, grisly anecdotes as if they amounted to an indictment of an entire class of people (usually men), who, if the worst of them can be shown to be guilty of such outrages, must all be equally responsible for them. The shock will soften your audience up enough to keep them from asking just how typical such atrocities really are and how widely condoned. Yes, they do happen, but like the handful of kidnapped little girls during the summer of 2002, such horrors can be made to seem epidemic when they're actually a rarity. Meanwhile, the much less exciting, if far more common, troubles of women who are simply trying to feed their children on inadequate wages, or get a decent job, fall by the wayside.

After this came the dodgy statistics, the one out of every four women said to have been raped in her lifetime, the alleged upsurge in domestic violence reports after the Super Bowl, and other mediagenic numbers. If these "facts" later turned out to be wobbly (or, in the case of the Super Bowl story, an outright hoax), many women's advocates rarely seemed to grasp the damage they'd done. After all, they were only calling attention to real, pervasive problems, which rape and domestic violence unquestionably are.

But here's the rub: If you get sloppy with the truth, then anyone who doesn't feel like dealing with those problems can happily devote himself to quibbling with your numbers instead. Does it really matter that much whether it's one women in four who will be raped, or one woman in 10? Or 20? It's still too many, and it needs to be stopped. Good luck getting that done while everyone's busy arguing about your stats.

The ravaged, bruised and mutilated women who parade through Dworkin's writings can seem as insubstantial as these numbers. As described by her, they're like the characters in an urban legend or campfire story, like the girl who finds the bloodied hook hanging from the car door handle. She tells their stories with an unseemly relish, and they're portrayed as completely and utterly helpless and abject, with no one to turn to but their equally brutalized yet indomitable champion. "Heartbreak" professes to be the testament of someone who has devoted herself to abused women, but the only three-dimensional human being who emerges from the book's Sturm und Drang is Dworkin herself. It's a mistake to equate a writer's work with how she lives her life, so let us hope that, in person, Dworkin managed to treat these women as more than rescue objects.

Perhaps in recent years Dworkin was pleased to see support for her own ideas in the theories of evolutionary psychologists who argue for the innate aggression of male sexuality, and even go so far as to suggest that men are born to rape. Probably not, though; she would have likely seen it as an excuse to go on raping. The very opposite of self-reflective, she never reconsidered her position on porn, so she surely never wondered what all the time and energy feminists spent on the "Sex Wars" of the 1980s might have accomplished if it had been redirected toward helping abused women gain the financial and emotional wherewithal to reclaim their lives. Her contribution to the discussion on most issues failed the ultimate litmus test: Even when she was right, she made the public conversation stupider. (Though some of her opponents, who could rarely resist ad hominem remarks about her appearance, surpassed her even in that.)

https://www.salon.com/2005/04/12/dworkin_3/

[sonderrow-moved]

CONFESSION OF JUST ONE MAN. 07/??.

There was a small *schlick*. An incomparable sound which could only be made when a good, kind of heavy blade met a porous, thick fabric, breaking it yet still showing some resistance by how healthily dense it was. It was the part which made this sound a bit of a teeth gritter. The other, smoother part was because of the liquid which broke out under every layer of meat. You are so used to see a human body in science classes, it is a bit unreal, but also familiar when you open one up in real life.

It wasn’t the first time I opened one, I did it a lot. At times. Mind you I am not one of those sickos who gets too much into their own fantasy, have some sick compulsion. My line of cleaning showed me enough red flags so I could avoid my own.

She was one woman, just like all the other ones I hated. There is this whole shenanigan about men having mommy issues, I am not arrogant enough to think I am any different. Whatever the source, I just enjoyed cutting women. Hypocritical ones, ones who had an attitude. I didn’t like to touch kind ones, brave ones. I liked to touch those who were constantly rude for no reasons, bitches who would talk behind people’s back, ignorant ones who were not smart enough to see the grand scheme of things, stupid whores who were just good at spreading their legs and bearing children as garbage as them.

I like silence, I learned that soon enough. And since this is my comfort zone, I sometimes take the luxury to cut the vocal cords before or paralyze them like in this case, or I can always wear a very powerful noise cancelling headset. When I feel like a fighter, I do it with them bound by the extremities, and feel every twist of their body to escape. When I feel lazy, I just paralyze them and do as I please, like living, breathing doll. This is the only release all the hate inside me can afford, and nobody, nothing can waste it.

Listening to her breathy whisper of pain is like music to my ears, a sound I allow while I finish opening up her clothes. It feels more personal, when people are clothed. Clothes are part of your personality, of their life, if you remove them, they just look like nameless animals. This is not what I want. I like to feel the weight of their existence, and how I can tear it apart. The best part is when their attitude give in. For the strongest warriors, it is the split second when their wall break because of one sharp pain, and then they come back to having this sort of mental wrestling with me. It is only one-sided though; their eyes widening as I cut is enough for me to know that I won.

I like to lacerate the torso first, open it up and play with the wound as I cut deeper, like eating some steak tartare. I wear gloves to take care of my hands, but I still wear my everyday clothes; like I said, it feels more personal. When maybe it is not; in reality, she doesn’t know me, and I don’t know her. She is (maybe) more than the whore she was being so nasty to her coworkers and I am (I know it) more than a man holding a scalpel and having fun like a child with some food. I dig my nail through my gloves inside her wounds, a glop kind of sound echoing through the cold, dark room as her flesh tear, compared to how it was sliced so neatly earlier. I can make up the bits of meat stretching, like a bit of chewed gum, I should find a better comparison. And before I know it, by my curiosity and thoughts of finding a good food metaphor to this, I didn’t realize how wide I just made this one. Her body trembling gave it away and I let it be; the paralysis must be wearing off, but when it does entirely, she’d be unable to fight anyway.

Sex is always a subject which fascinated me. How desire makes us civilized beings back again to our bestial roots, and how with our wide intellect, we just made more sordid ways to satisfy our lowly lust. I don’t know where this comes from for me. Maybe I have my own inclinations and an underlying lust under my balls who just need a once per two months of emptying. Maybe it just comes in my tendency to observe thoroughly. Or maybe it is because my big sister raped me when I was a child. Who knows, whatever source doesn’t change the outcome, like I say.

Her body is one society would consider very nice, although it is not personally my type. Her stomach is flat. She is slender, with a bit of an hourglass shape. She has no big curve, her legs are slender and her breasts are just disappointingly pointy. Seeing how disgusting the masses are to adore such a weak appearance, I have no regrets when I cut off one of her nipple, almost deaf to her gagging. I dump more ice cold water on her face to keep her awake. It feels satisfying, like I am being efficient at what I do. It is the same feeling of a job well done. The second one, I tear off. And I roll them under by fingers as she bleeds out, feeling their unique texture, it is like they just became a stress ball in the palm of my hand. I squish them, trying to make them flat like pancakes. Obviously it doesn’t work. Still entertaining to do. Liberating. To think of something and act upon it. I sew the holes. And the little balls of threads give me some cathartic, trypophobia kind of feeling. A come back with my sterilized needle again and again. Too much. Too many times. Like I’m trying to replace her breasts, which are supposed to be attractive, with some sort of monstrous, obsidian black and spiky extremities.

I go upwards and meet her eyes. She hates me, so, so much. Sometimes, their eyes have such a bullying feeling to them I feel a bit of fear, like it digs right into my self-esteem, maybe I am masochistic to let those linger through me and not hide their sockets after such encounters. My knife goes to the side of her mouth, slicing it so her cheeks  open, and I can see her whole, perfect and crimson with blood denture. I find it so much more appealing than her skin with way too much foundations. Even all the rubbing I did didn’t take off her makeup; it just make women less beautiful I say. Of bad taste those bold colours were. I thought her eyelashes were fake, turned out when I plucked them they were real. Though the crayon to the eyebrows was so thick, tearing off all the hair didn’t get the lines off.

But then I waited too much. Too much preparation, when in the thick of it I cannot wait anymore. Murderers can take their sweet time of torture, but there is so much I can do; I just want to get what I was looking for. And it is to undo her to her deepest parts, have them rupture for me and against her will.

The tip of my blade is tickling her clitoris, and as she moves her legs, her bottom clothes just slide on the floor, like a woman being prepared to be made love to. She screams, and I smile without realizing actually. It is only the tip, which I roll around, the cold steel molesting her most sensitive spot. Our face grow closer, and she is too paralyzed, already thinking about the pain to even think about spitting in my face. But I maintain the eye contact, so strongly she cannot look elsewhere but at me.

Like I was giving a good, quick and rough fisting, my arm gives a sharp hit, only my hand is holding a scalpel, and I tug it deep inside her damn vagina, until you almost cannot see the hilt, in one damn go, without even getting my hand dirty by touching her. I let go as she spasms on the table. I dump more ice water on her before she passes out. Her intimate parts twitch, like she was just pleasured. And I go grab another scalpel. I make a move I could even call cool, and a slice in the air as if I was fighting, back and forth, precise and strong. And I watch so closely as blood spurts from her mutilated, shaved crotch, and her clitoris just slices open, too much of a mess for me to make up if I can see some sort of nerves, or anything more interesting than that little clump of skin. I shove two tips of index fingers in, spreading it like a doctor checking his patient’s genital health. And then I push directly inside the wounded button, like a lover who wants to feel the very nerve of his woman. I am satisfied with the sensation I find, but disappointed at the spectacle. I shake my hands, remove the gloves, and put a new pair on, just after stabbing that lovebud, deep enough so my scalpel stays up; I need to keep my tool readily available. Soon enough, the first blade is moving upwards, slicing everything open while my mind probably hallucinates juices flowing all over the place; it is impossible there was this much, yet this how I remember and will remember. And I prefer it like this. It makes a very fond memory.

That is what I think about most. Not their face, their name. I make this pitiful attempt to get close to them, because I am sure it will work every single time. But what I only remember is how deformed they were, how sick they make me, how angry I feel when I think about how this body can be liked by people.

I do everything so clean, although it is a body being open. And soon enough does she loses enough blood to die. I still have my fun exploring some parts when I am satisfied martyrizing her womb and co. The organs and stuff. This type of things everyone has heard or seen in any gory story, why would I bother? It wouldn’t faze anybody, and it didn’t faze me. Gave me a kind feeling, but nothing so notable as what I play in my head. Whatever if one day I stop doing it, I did it at least once. Who else can say the same? I got the best. Even after her death, my hands keep digging inside her thighs, and every piece of torture I realize source by starting from there. It makes something of some morbid star, dark and bloody. A beautiful masterpiece. Maybe I should refine my aesthetic, make more pleasing pictures for me to wonder about in my spare time. My mind even became amused if I could maybe, find a baby in there, and squash it like a crunchy cricket inside a cooked egg. Yet I found nothing. Too bad women too far in pregnancy do not interest me.

And when the full silence finally falls, I am alone. Because there were two before, and now I am on my own, with an object beside me. And since I am so cozy in, I don’t mind getting a little bit crazy. I like to cut her in pieces, because she’d be too heavy. I don’t care what I use, though I like the dirty and messy gashes of flesh rusty saws make, like you cannot tell if it was cut or tore. And the gore looks like it just exploded on its own, the unclean extremities making some sort of bouquet if I may say so myself. I like to take those parts, and smash them as hard as I can against the wall. I am never satisfied, even as they open up under me and blood stains bits of my cheeks. I don’t care about my appearance anymore, and there is only this loud THUD repeating over and over again, quicker and quicker. I can grab her severed head, smash her face against the concrete wall, and drag it as it leaves a gruesome trace, painting the material like I’m the new Francis Bacon.

I cannot see my face when I do that. It feels great. Violence. It is so stupid, stereotypically male… and I just let myself fall to it like an ignoramus. For one moment. At times, I will stop, my mind telling me it is enough. I’d look at the gash of her flesh, her limp body all mushed by my whole dominant strength beating her, playing around like a kid with too much anger playing baseball… and then I start again. Because it is not enough. I take momentary breaks when my muscles strain, and then I do it again. I cannot see her. I cannot take the thought that she still looks like herself when I stop. I want the magic to happen, to have all of this shit unrecognizable. I want the overwhelming feeling of a job well done. And just like how I plunged in her fuck, I’d satisfy my satiety until I see how she looks like if I were to take out all my energy… and even more, if the result doesn’t look good.

And I never end up satisfied. Her broken skull still looks like a skull. The finger that flew out of the room still look like a finger. And nothing can help me. Nothing can satisfy me. Those women have no souls, they cannot fill anything except give me the climax my anger needs. In the end, besides that mush of meat, I can perfectly make up her and it doesn’t go away. Yet I feel just as alone, with nothing besides me. A weakness this curse of being a human able of thoughts and feelings gave me. I won’t be one of those jackasses who says they are of marble. Self control and composure don’t mean you do not have emotions, and mine bangs my organs every living moment. I remove my gloves and my fingers trace on all that shit on the wall. So roughly I actually hurt myself and opens up my skin. It burns, like I just fell on concrete and was grated like some piece of cheese.

I was born like this. I don’t care about the how or why. Might as well just go with it. I don’t care.

… I have another, if you want.

[alittledizzy]

a long-winded but true story in which the moral is: why being able to talk about penises freely but not vaginas/vulvas is dangerous

this is about something that happened to me lately that could be considered tmi but you know what? it’s about physical health for a body part which in my case is no more sexual than my knee, so: if you find this story squeamish because physical health talk in general makes you uncomfortable that’s fair enough, but if it makes you uncomfortable specifically because it’s about physical health regarding my vulva (unless you have a specific reason for the idea of vulvas making you uncomfortable) it’s even more important that you in particular read this

(trigger warnings for antibiotic drugs/pills; mentions of vomit, abuse, genital mutilation, rape)

so two sundays ago i woke up and long story short it felt like my vulva was on fire with the amount of irritation it was experiencing — i’m not just talking about mild itching, i’m talking about ‘if this were a pain scale in the hospital for an injury that the nurse/doctor is giving you it would be a solid 6 or 7 for ‘severe, cannot concentrate on everyday activities as a result’’ irritation and pain, and it only got worse whenever i needed the toilet (which was frequently). so i couldn’t focus on anything, but it was okay because i knew exactly what to d- no, i didn’t. i had no idea what to do. i’d never been taught about everyday vulval health to the extent that i wasn’t even sure if this irritation was supposed to be an issue or not. that might sound stupid, especially considering i’ve been living with my vulva for decades, but: - it wasn’t the first time i’d experienced that irritation (only this time was the worst) - i’d never been able to discuss vulval health openly with anyone because no one had ever made it clear to me that i could talk to them about it if i needed to for whatever reason - and thus i’d never heard anyone complain about any similar experiences - therefore i couldn’t be sure whether it was normal or not - additionally the number of times i’d heard the phrase ‘UTI’ was lower than the number of digits on my hand - and even though i knew what it stood for i still had had no idea what the symptoms might include

so, because of my lack of education about vulval health, and especially because i was embarrassed about it — considering my entire life i’d been grown up surrounded by the attitude of ‘if it’s not absolutely necessary to discuss your vagina, don’t’, which funnily enough sounds like the saying “if you have nothing nice to say, don’t say it at all” (which is where the topics stigmatisation and misogyny come in, because that attitude implies that vaginal health is a dirty or improper or ‘rude’ topic to talk about in comparison to phallic health) — i didn’t do anything. i’d never been given the knowledge to be able to know that something was wrong, and i’d always been subliminally taught that it wasn’t socially acceptable to discuss vaginas or vulvas anyway, so i said nothing and researched nothing. monday to thursday i suffered in complete silence, still going into work and trying my best to act like nothing was wrong, even though the pain felt like the equivalent to a severe migraine (i’ve had plenty of migraines, thanks genetics, so i can judge). the only time i got a break from the pain was when i was asleep, and even then sometimes i woke up in the middle of the night because it burned so much, during which points i lost a lot of sleep because it took a couple of hours to drop back to sleep from sheer exhaustion. it was this constant never-ending demon that i couldn’t ignore or forget or ameliorate with medicinal creams of any kind, and what made it even worse was that during that week my work was undergoing intensely difficult graded assessment. i was stressed, in constant pain, loosing sleep and fucking terrified at what was going on.

thursday afternoon and i decided i’d had enough. i was suffering too much that even though i had no idea whether it was even an unnatural thing or not, i knew that whatever it was i couldn’t let it control me so much anymore. i couldn’t talk to my mates or anyone else about it because the mentioned internalised stigmatisation, so i ended up asking my own mother about it (which even now i still feel annoyingly embarrassed about, annoyingly because i know i shouldn’t feel embarrassed when it’s about my goddamned wellbeing). when she inevitably told me that no, it’s not normal to be in that much pain, i was relieved because it meant that i wasn’t just overreacting, but now even more scared because i now knew something was wrong and to someone as ignorant on the topic as me, it could have been anything. she told me to see a doctor as soon as possible, which i did.

i managed to see a doctor the very next day, on the friday (bless the nhs); i knew at the time that there was no shame in talking about what had been happening (again, it’s my health and health takes priority) and i knew that to the doctor it wouldn’t matter because that’s what they’re trained to do, to help your medical issues regardless of any potential disgust factor, but i still felt embarrassed as hell about it all. i described what i was going through, gave the obligatory urine sample etc etc and lo and behold, i did indeed have a UTI. he gave me antibiotics, which i duly took friday through to last sunday, and then it was gone! celebrations!

now here’s the thing. although i left it a long time to see the doctor, i still managed to catch it before it spread to the kidneys. during that appointment we had discussed it and it was revealed that thank god it had not yet spread, BUT if it HAD spread i would have started to experience the following symptoms, as stated by the doctor himself: - back pains - fever - headaches - fatigue - nausea and vomiting additionally, if it had spread to the kidneys and been left untreated, it could have also led to the following in the long run: - decreased or weakened kidney function - if my kidney was already weak, the possibility of overall kidney failure - the infection spreading to the bloodstream - therefore spreading to other organs so you can probably understand at this point why it’s lucky that i saw the doctor and caught it when i did, before it escalated even further. however, even as it was, i still didn’t see the doctor for nearly a full week after infection, and even after being prescribed with antibiotics the pain lasted until the day after i took my final pill, which was last monday. eight days of constant pain, internalised embarrassment, sleep loss, fear/paranoia (especially when it seemed like the antibiotics weren’t working by the last day), and reduced potential in the workplace. in fact, i looked it up, and i can actually receive extra credit for those graded assignments considering i fell under the category of “experiencing a distracting minor illness” as long as i provide a doctor’s note proving that i had the appointment.

eight days of constant pain, sleep loss, fear, paranoia and reduced potential in the workplace. and you know how this could have been avoided? if my social environment had felt safe enough for me to speak up about the issue, the issue being my vulval health, and if i had been taught enough previously to know that something was wrong.

during school all i’d ever learned about my genitalia is how menstruation, fertilisation, pregnancy and birth worked in bio class, and outside of/after school i’d basically never been taught anything. i’d never been taught about everyday vaginal/vulval health topics such as masturbation and UTIs — my parents had never taught me anything about such things (except how to use sanitary products) because they were too embarrassed and had expected the school to do it, and the school never taught me about those things beyond what we had to learn for biology or for pshe (where we only learned about contraception) because they expected my parents to teach me, so in my youth i was stuck in the middle, not knowing that i was supposed to learn all these things for my own good health and thus i never taught myself.

keep in mind that during and since secondary school i’ve been living in the uk, which compared to some other countries is pretty forward-thinking with issues like misogyny and wellbeing. now imagine how fucked i would have been in a culture where women are taught even less about their own bodies, where women are outright viewed as inferior, are viewed as less or not at all deserving of knowledge or rights to their own bodies, where women are frequently abused or raped or forced to undergo genital mutilation, or any other kind of abuse. all of society has a massive issue with letting people talk about their genital health, especially when it is specifically about vaginas or vulvas rather than penises, but i’m fortunate enough to be living in a country where i at least have the right to attempt to control how much suffering my body goes through, but in many other cultures a woman’s body is not considered her own right or her own property, and the thought of a woman even discussing her own health in a shameless or self-empowering manner is unimaginable. all of society shows more disdain towards discussion of vaginal/vulval health than phallic (for want of a better word to relate to penises) health, because of the still-widely internalised attitude that vaginas and the like are inherently dirty or sexual. the only difference is that some cultures look down upon such discussion more than others.

it is for these reasons that even “small” things, such as being afraid to directly mention vaginas and vulvas while having no hesitation in mentioning penises, contribute to misogynistic oppression. vaginas and vulvas are automatically thought of as sexual whether the context regarding them is sexual or not, while penises are viewed less frequently as sexual and more as jokes. because vaginas and vulvas are more likely to be viewed as sexual even if the context has absolutely nothing to do with sex, it leads people to view the discussion or context as dirty and improper, which brings shame upon the person whose vagina/vulva is being discussed. like this post, for example. nothing about this post is describing my vulva or vagina in a sexual context. i am not describing my sex life. i am not a sexual person. i do not use my vagina or vulva for sexual reasons, i am not sexually active and i am not seeking sex, so my vagina and vulva are about as sexual as my knees (hint: not at all sexual). i am simply describing my general health regarding them, i am not sexualising them, so this post deserves no shame but does deserve every equal amount of consideration and maturity that might be given to a post about a hypothetical infection in my knee. i suffered so much and for so long from my UTI simply because i was embarrassed (because of internalised misogyny) and uneducated (something that is also because of societal misogyny, the lack of education regarding all genital health rather than just reproductive health), and if i had let that hold me back any longer, as my doctor so described, the infection could have spread to my vital organs and caused much more serious problems that could have led to me being admitted to hospital.

tl;dr no one deserves shame simply for whatever genitalia they may have, and no one deserves shame for wanting to discuss and seek answers or cures for genital health problems. if we are told not to discuss our genitalia whatever the context because it is viewed as “improper”, we are made to feel ashamed and therefore hesitant to speak up and seek help. we (‘we’ referring to anyone with a vulva/vagina) are unfairly prevented from feeling shameless and empowered with our bodies, which results in oppression both because we are made to feel inferior and because we are less likely to seek medical guidance or help even when we most need it, resulting in unnecessary suffering (and potentially even death or at least a close encounter with it in some cases). this is why prejudice against open discussion of vaginas or vulvas is not excusable in any manner, and why i’m frankly disgusted with the amount of people who say it’s “not a big deal” when such prejudice is expressed (particularly since a fair amount of said people probably have vaginas/vulvas themselves)

(submission from @imagjnative)

[coochiequeens]

For Laura Bates, it began with a heavy piece of gold jewellery that her mother found on the passenger seat of the family car. It was a gift from her grandparents. Her mother, after two daughters, had been rewarded for giving birth to a son. “I am five years old,” Bates writes, “and have no idea I’ve already been weighed, valued and found wanting.”

This incident is the first on what the feminist writer and activist calls “my list”. She encourages all women to make one, charting a life in sexism, from the playground to the street to the workplace. “By the time I leave university, aged 20,” Bates writes, “I have been sexually assaulted, pressured to perform topless in a theatre production (I stand my ground, but the experience leaves me in tears) and cornered in the street by two men shouting, ‘We’re going to part those legs and fuck that cunt.’”

Fix the System, Not the Women is an attempt to highlight “the interlocking systems of domination that define our reality” – and to pull apart the myth that women are complicit in our own oppression. Bates’s central message, which she has developed through her Everyday Sexism Project, the online forum that has now received 200,000 stories of sexism and misogyny from all over the world, and books including Girl Up (2016) and Men Who Hate Women (2020), is that there is a spectrum of gender inequality. Sexist jokes and stereotypes are at one end. Rape, domestic abuse, female genital mutilation and so-called “honour” killings are at the other. Maternity discrimination, workplace sexual harassment, the gender pay gap “and so much more” lie somewhere in between.

What if, Bates asks, none of it is actually women’s fault? What if women can’t network, mentor, charm, assert and lean in their way out of sexism because this is a system that is rigged against them? A system that relies on its own invisibility for its preservation.

Bates pursues her thesis across five key areas: education, policing, criminal justice, media and politics. The fact that only a quarter of the Cabinet are women might just explain why working mothers lost their jobs at far higher rates than fathers during the Covid-19 pandemic, and new mothers were forced to give birth alone while pubs were allowed to open.

But the most rousing sections of the book are on male violence and the burden on women to keep themselves safe. When a woman is killed, it is often called “an isolated incident”, and yet a woman is murdered by a man in the UK every three days. Bates is scathing about Priti Patel’s support for an app to log women’s movements, on top of managing all the other gear they are advised to carry. As a society “we cannot stop finding excuses for male violence”, she writes. Despite the increased prominence of feminist campaigns, charges in rape cases are now exactly half what they were in 2015–16. Too often, decisions about whether or not to proceed to trial for rape rely on whether the woman fits the societal profile of the “perfect victim”: ie, those who are “sweet and pretty and innocent and careful and didn’t stray off the path or talk to the wolf”. And also, importantly, white.

Fix the System contains plenty of suggestions for reform, including apps that track the movements of men convicted of crimes against women, and banning non-disclosure agreements that gag staff who have experienced maternity discrimination. Bates also reminds us that if we want to tackle oppression in one sphere, we need to be aware of its overlap with others. Black women are four times as likely to die in pregnancy or childbirth in the UK, yet rarely see themselves represented in campaigns to reach out to expectant mothers. Disabled women are twice as likely to suffer domestic abuse, but just one in 10 spaces in refuges is accessible to those with physical disabilities.

But Bates is adamant that it’s not her job to find solutions. Hundreds already exist, “ignored and unused” in reports and campaign materials of feminist and civil rights 

organisations. Which made me wonder: how many men will read Fix the System? In recent years, books such as Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race and White Fragility have been bought in huge numbers by white people. Because, as Bates says: “this is not our mess to clean up”. Sadly, I suspect the feminist publishing boom has passed most male readers by.

It would be heartening to think that Fix the System could be the book to change that. It’s an astute and persuasive page-turner, a clear-sighted, compelling examination of injustice. I was haunted by the story of a woman attacked by her ex-husband, who smashed her head so hard against a BMW that it dented the bodywork and left her needing hospital treatment. He was convicted of assault, ordered to pay his ex-wife £150 in compensation – and £818 to the owner of the BMW.

 Fix the System, Not the Women by Laura Bates is published by Simon & Schuster (£12.99). To support the Guardian and Observer order your copy at guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply

[standtoreason93]

The Bible: Reading the “Ordinary” Way

By Greg Koukl

I never like the question “Do you take the Bible literally?” It comes up with some frequency, and it deserves a response. But I think it’s an ambiguous—and, therefore, confusing—question, making it awkward to answer.

Clearly, even those with a high view of Scripture don’t take everythingliterally. Jesus is the “door,” but He’s not made of wood. We are the “branches,” but we’re not sprouting leaves.

On the other hand, we do take seriously accounts that others find fanciful and far-fetched: a man made from mud (Adam), loaves and fishes miraculously multiplied, vivified corpses rising from graves, etc.

A short “yes” or “no” response to the “Do you take the Bible literally?” question, then, would not be helpful. Neither answer gives the full picture. In fact, I think it’s the wrong question since frequently something else is driving the query.

Taking “Literally” Literally

Let’s start with a definition. According to the New Oxford American Dictionary, the word “literal” means “taking words in their usual or most basic sense without metaphor or allegory, free from exaggeration or distortion.” Why do people balk at this common-sense notion when it comes to the Bible or, more precisely, certain passages in the Bible?

Let’s face it, even non-Christians read the Bible in its “usual or most basic sense” most of the time on points that are not controversial. They readily take statements like “Love your neighbor as yourself” or “Remember the poor” at face value. When citing Jesus’ directive “Do not judge,” they’re not deterred by the challenge “You don’t take the Bible literally, do you?”

No, when critics agree with the point of a passage, they take the words in their ordinary and customary sense. They naturally understand that language works a certain way in everyday communication, and it never occurs to them to think otherwise.

Unless, of course, the details of the text trouble them for some reason.

What of the opening chapters of Genesis? Is this a straightforward account describing historical events the way they actually happened? Were Adam and Eve real people, the first human beings? Was Adam created from dirt? Did Eve really come from Adam’s rib? Did Jonah actually survive three days in the belly of a great fish? Did a virgin really have a baby? Such claims seem so fanciful to many people, it’s hard for them to take the statements at face value.

Other times, the critic simply does not like what he reads. He abandons the “literal” approach when he comes across something in the text that offends his own philosophical, theological, or moral sensibilities. Jesus the only way of salvation? No way. Homosexuality a sin? Please. A “loving” God sending anyone to the eternal torment of Hell? Not a chance.

Notice the objection to these teachings is not based on some ambiguity in the text that makes alternate interpretations plausible. The Scripture affirms these truths with the very same clarity as “Love your neighbor.” No, these verses simply offend. Suddenly, the critic becomes a skeptic and sniffs, “You don’t take the Bible literally, do you?”

This subtle double standard, I think, is usually at the heart of the taking-the-Bible-literally challenge. Sometimes the ruse is hard to unravel.

An example might be helpful here.

Literal vs. Lateral

In the Law of Moses, homosexual activity was punishable by death (Lev. 18:22 and 20:13). Therefore (the charge often goes), any Christian who takes the Bible literally must advocate the execution of homosexuals.

Of course, the strategy with this move is obvious: If we don’t promote executing homosexuals, we can’t legitimately condemn their behavior, since both details are in the Bible. If we don’t take the Bible literally in the first case, we shouldn’t in the second case, either. That’s being inconsistent.

How do we escape the horns of this dilemma? By using care and precision with our definitions, that’s how.

Here’s our first question: When Moses wrote the Law, did he expect the Jewish people to take those regulations literally? If you’re not sure how to answer, let me ask it another way. When an ordinance is passed in your local state (California, in my case), do you think the legislators intend its citizens to understand the words of the regulations “in their usual or most basic sense without metaphor or allegory, free from exaggeration or distortion”?

Of course they do. Legal codes are not written in figurative language allowing each citizen to get creative with the meaning. The same would be true for the Mosaic Law. Moses meant it the way he wrote it.

But now, it seems, we’re stuck on the other horn of the dilemma. To be consistent, shouldn’t we currently campaign for the death penalty for homosexuals? For that matter, aren’t we obliged to promote execution for disobedient children and Sabbath-breakers, both capital crimes under the Law?

The simple answer is no. Here’s why. Even when a biblical command is intended to be understood literally, that does not mean it is intended to be applied laterally, so to speak—that is, universally across the board to all peoples at all times in all places.

Consider this situation: Jesus told Peter to cast his net in deep water (Luke 5:4). That’s exactly what Peter did because he took Jesus’ command literally, in its ordinary sense. He had no reason to think otherwise. However, even though Jesus’ command to Peter was literal, that does not mean the same command applies laterally to everyone else. We’re not obligated to cast nets into deep water just because Peter was.

Here’s another way of looking at it. California legal codes are to be readliterally, but not applied laterally. They only apply to those in California and have no application to people in other states. Its laws have local, literal application within its own borders, but no lateral application elsewhere.

In the same way, the words of the Mosaic Law, like those of all laws, are to be taken at face value by anyone who reads them. Yet only those under its jurisdiction are obliged to obey its precepts.[i]

The Jews in the theocracy were expected to obey the legal code God gave them, including the prohibition of and punishment for homosexuality. It was not the legal code God gave to Gentiles, however. Therefore, even if the words of the Mosaic Law were to be taken literally by those under the jurisdiction of that code, this does not mean that in our current circumstances we are governed by the details of the provisions of that Law.

A clarification is necessary here. Am I saying that nothing written in the Mosaic Law is ever applicable to Christians or other Gentiles or that there are no universal moral obligations that humanity shares with the Jews of Moses’ time? No, I’m not saying that.

Though Moses gave legal statutes for Jews living in the Jewish state, that Law in some cases still reflects moral universals that have application for those outside the nation of Israel. As I have written elsewhere:

Perversion is still perverse, and wickedness is still wrong, whether it be adultery, rape, incest, or bestiality—or any of a number of evil acts all condemned by Moses in the “old” Law.[ii]

So yes, we can glean wisdom and moral guidance from the Law of Moses for our own legal codes, but there are limits. Working out those details is a different discussion, however. [iii]

The question here is not whether we take the Mosaic Law literally, but whether we are now under that legal code. We are not. That law was meant for Jews living under a theocracy defined by their unique covenant with God. Simply because a directive appears in the Mosaic Law does not, by that fact alone, make it obligatory for those living outside of Israel’s commonwealth.

Americans are a mixture of peoples in a representative republic governed by a different set of decrees than the Jews under Moses. We are not obliged to obey everything that came down from Sinai. Even though it was commanded of the Jews, that does not necessarily mean it is commanded of us. If anyone thinks otherwise, he is duty-bound to take his net and cast it into deep water.

That confusion aside, we’re still faced with our original question: When do we take the Bible literally?

Reading the “Ordinary” Way

Here’s how I would lay the groundwork for an answer. If I’m asked if I take the Bible literally, I would say I think that’s the wrong question. I’d say instead that I take the Bible in its ordinary sense; that is, I try to take the things recorded there with the precision it seems the writer intended.

I realize this reply might also be a bit ambiguous, but here, I think, that’s a strength. Hopefully, my comment will prompt a request for clarification. This is exactly what I want. I’d clarify by countering with a question: “Do you read the sports page literally?”

If I asked you this question, I think you’d pause because there is a sense in which everyone reads the sports page in a straightforward way. Certain factual information is part of every story in that section. However, you wouldn’t take everything written in a woodenly literal way that ignores the conventions of the craft.

“Literally?” you might respond. “That depends. If the writer seems to be stating a fact—like a score, a location, a player’s name, a description of the plays leading to a touchdown—then I’d take that as literal. If he seems to be using a figure of speech, then I’d read his statement that way, figuratively, not literally.”

Exactly. Sportswriters use a particular style to communicate the details of athletic contests clearly. They choose precise (and sometimes imaginative) words and phrases to convey a solid sense of the particulars in an entertaining way.

Sportswriters routinely use words like “annihilated,” “crushed,” “mangled,” “mutilated,” “stomped,” and “pounded,” yet no one speculates about literal meanings. Readers don’t scratch their heads wondering if cannibalism was involved when they read “the Los Angeles Angels devoured the Houston Astros.”

We recognize such constructions as figures of speech used to communicate in colorful ways events that actually (“literally”) took place. In fact, we never give those details a second thought because we understand how language works.

When a writer seems to be communicating facts in a straightforward fashion, we read them as such. When we encounter obvious figures of speech, we take them that way, too.

That’s the normal way to read the sports page. It’s also the normal—and responsible—way to read any work, including the Bible. Always ask, “What is this writer trying to communicate?” This is exactly what I’m after when I say, “I take the Bible in its ordinary sense.”

Of course, some people may differ on what point the text of the Bible is actually making. Fair enough. There’s nothing dishonest about honest disagreement. They might have reasons to think some Christian is mistaken on the meaning of the text. Misinterpretation is always possible. However, conjuring up some meaning that has little to do with the words the writer used is not a legitimate alternative.

If people disagree with the obvious sense of a passage, ask them for the reasons they think the text should be an exception to the otherwise sound “ordinary sense” rule. Their answer will tell you if their challenge is intellectually honest, or if they’re just trying to dismiss biblical claims they simply don’t like.

Two Thoughts on Metaphor

Reading any writing the ordinary way requires we understand two points about figurative speech, both implicit in the concept of metaphor.

The New Oxford American Dictionary defines metaphor as “a figure of speech in which a word or phrase is applied to an object or action to which it is not literally applicable…a thing regarded as representative or symbolic of something else.” So, metaphors take one meaning of a word and then creatively leverage it into another meaning to make an impact on a reader.

Here is the first point to be clear on: All metaphors (or other forms of figurative writing) rely first on literal definitions before they can be of any use as figures of speech. All words must first be understood in their “usual or most basic sense” before they can be used figuratively.

We find, for example, the word “shepherd” prominently featured in the 23rd Psalm. Do you see that we must first understand the literal meaning of “shepherd” before the phrase “the Lord is my shepherd” has any figurative power?

This point is critical for accurate biblical interpretation. Here’s why.

Sometimes we attempt to solve interpretive problems by digging through a Bible dictionary. This can be a helpful place to start since all figurative language relies in some way on dictionary definitions. But the dictionary cannot be the final word because it can never tell you what use a specific writer is making of any particular word or phrase.

Strictly speaking, no word standing alone can be a metaphor. Words can only be used metaphorically when they’re embedded in a context. Therefore, it makes no sense to ask of a solitary word, “Is the word meant literally?” because the word standing on its own gives no indication.

Dictionaries, by definition, can only deal with words in isolation. Other things—context, genre, flow of thought, etc.—determine if the word’s literal sense is being applied in a non-literal way, symbolically “regarded as representative” of something else.

Take two sentences: “The sunshine streamed through my window,” and, “Sweetheart, you are a ray of sunshine to me this morning.” Sunshine’s literal meaning is the same in each case. However, it is used literally in the first sentence but metaphorically in the second. Further, unless my wife understands the literal meaning of “sunshine,” she will never understand the compliment I’m offering her in a poetic sort of way.

So first, literal definitions must be in place before a word can be used figuratively. Second, metaphors are always meant to clarify, not obscure.

There’s a sense in which figurative speech drives an author’s meaning home in ways that words taken in the ordinary way could never do. “All good allegory,” C.S. Lewis notes, “exists not to hide, but to reveal, to make the inner world more palpable by giving it an (imagined) concrete embodiment.”[iv]

Figurative speech communicates literal truth in a more precise and powerful way than ordinary language can on its own. The strictly literal comment “Honey, your presence makes me feel good today” doesn’t pack the punch that the “sunshine” figure provides. The metaphor makes my precise point more powerfully than “words in their usual or most basic sense” could accomplish.

Remember, even when metaphor is in play, some literal message is always intended. Hell may not have literal flames,[v] but the reality is at least as gruesome, ergo the figure.

Once again, it’s always right to ask, “What is the precise meaning the writer is trying to communicate with his colorful language?” But how do we do that? Here I have a suggestion.

The Most Important Thing

If there is one bit of wisdom, one rule of thumb, one useful tip I can offer to help you solve the riddle of scriptural meaning, it’s this: Never read a Bible verse. That’s right, never read a Bible verse. Instead, always read a paragraph—at least.

On the radio, I use this simple rule to help me answer the majority of Bible questions I’m asked, even when I’m not familiar with the particular passage. When I quickly survey the paragraph containing the verse in question, the larger context almost always provides the information I need to help me understand what’s going on.

This works because of a basic rule of all communication: Meaning flows from the top down, from the larger units to the smaller units. The key to the meaning of any verse comes from the paragraph, not just from the individual words.

Here’s how it works. First, get the big picture. Look at the broader context of the book. What type of writing is it? History? Poetry? Proverb? Letter? Different genres have different standards for reading them—obviously.

Next, stand back from the verse and look for breaks in the passage that identify major units of thought. Then ask yourself, “What in this paragraph or group of paragraphs gives any clue to the meaning of the verse in question? In general, what idea is being developed? What is the flow of thought?”

With the larger context now in view, you can narrow your focus and speculate on the meaning of the verse itself. When you come up with something that seems right, sum it up in your own words. Finally—and this step is critical—see if your paraphrase—your summary—makes sense when inserted in place of the verse in the passage.

I call this “the paraphrase principle.” Replace the text in question with your paraphrase and see if the passage still makes sense in light of the larger context. Is it intelligible when inserted back into the paragraph? Does it dovetail naturally with the bigger picture? If it doesn’t, you know you’re on the wrong track.

This technique will immediately weed out interpretations that are obviously erroneous. It’s not a foolproof positive test for accuracy since some faulty interpretations could still be coherent in the context. However, it is a reliable negative test, quickly eliminating alternatives that don’t fit the flow of thought.

If you will begin to do these two things—read the context carefully and apply the paraphrase principle—you will radically improve the accuracy of your interpretations. Remember, meaning always flows from the larger units to the smaller units. Without the bigger picture, you’ll likely be lost.

Don’t forget the rule: Never read a Bible verse. Always read a paragraph, at least, if you want to be confident you’re getting the right meaning of the verse.

Do I take the Bible literally? I try to take it at its plain meaning unless I have some good reason to do otherwise. This is the basic rule we apply to everything we read: novels, newspapers, periodicals, and poems. It’s reading the “ordinary” way. I don’t see why the Bible should be any different.

___________________________

[i] This principle is critical to understanding the role of Old Testament Law in New Testament times.

[ii] See Gregory Koukl and Alan Shlemon, “A Reformation the Church Doesn’t Need: Answering Revisionist Pro-Gay Theology—Part I,” available at str.org.

[iii] For the record, I think the immorality of homosexuality is one of those universal moral laws since, among other reasons, it’s identified in the New Testament as wrong irrespective of the Mosaic Law (e.g., Rom. 1:27).

[iv] C.S. Lewis, The Pilgrim’s Regress, “Afterword to Third Edition,” (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1958), 208.

[v] In more than one instance, Jesus described Hell as “outer darkness” (e.g., Matt. 8:12) and literal flames give light.

[loyallogic]

Animal Abuse: Study on Inhumanity and Cruelty

This article has been written by Joshita Mohanty, a student of Amity University Noida.

Introduction to Animal Cruelty

In literal terms, abuse means to inflict someone with pain, harm or violence, especially regularly or frequently, therefore, animal cruelty is known as the malpractice of treating animals with cruel, violence, unethical and depraved behavior. Subjecting animals to an environment where they feel scared, unprotected and terrorized is called animal cruelty. People believe that they have a right on the lives of the animals and they can treat them in any way they want to. Everyday countless animals are being succumbed to inhumanity, torture and brutality. Animals are creatures who are capable of showing love and affection, taking care of their health and nutrition is the duty of every human. The cases of animal brutality are increasing day by day and the reason for these killings go unexplained. People kill and mutilate animals just for their personal satisfaction or fun. 

The recent brutal killing of a 15-year-old pregnant elephant in Kerala has created world-wide controversy. On May 12th, the pregnant elephant left the Silent Valley Rainforest and entered into a nearby village looking for food. The accused, Wilson, offered the elephant a coconut filled with explosives. As she chomped on it, the fruit exploded in her mouth, leading to severe injuries. The explosion in her mouth led to the breaking of her jaw and deep internal injuries. For the next 2 weeks, the elephant kept wandering around in pain and agony. None of the villagers bothered to rescue her. On May 25th, the elephant entered the Velliyar river in Malappuram, where she stood still for two days, squirming in immense pain. The accused were well aware of the fact that the poor elephant was pregnant and in deep pain. But still, they showed no signs of concern and help.

On 27th May, the poor elephant drowned herself, with her head dipped in the water and died. The assistant forest veterinary officer, Dr. David Abraham, stated in the postmortem that the reason for the death was the entry of Asphyxia into the lungs and water. The two other accused were the rubber estate owner, Abdul Kareem and his son Riyaz Uddin who are possibly hiding and the police are on the search. The main accused, Wilson has been arrested. The accused said that explosive filled fruits were used as bait to catch the wild animals, but nonetheless the intention of causing such immense harm is nothing but inhumanity. Criminal charges under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972 has been filed which lays down a prison term of 7 years. 

Brief Analysis on Animal Abuse in the US

Studies have revealed that an animal faces abuse every 60 seconds.

Among all the abused animals, 65% of them are dogs.

More than 10 million dogs die in the U.S every year.

More than 6.5 million of animals are adopted by the Animal rescue and shelter centres. Most of these abandoned animals are victims to torture and brutality.

More than 115 million animals are used for product testing and laboratory experiments.

Almost 35,000-50,000 elephants are poached every year world-wide. This might lead to elephant extinction in the near future. 

Millions of animals are killed and slaughtered every year for their fur and skin. More than 50% of the fur that is used in the industries of the U.S comes from China. 

A survey revealed that 88% of the families in U.S. who are being investigated for child abuse currently, are also targeted for animal abuse. 

Brief Analysis of Animal Abuse in India

19,028 cases of animal brutality were recorded in Mumbai in a span of 5 years (2011-2016). Although, not even a single arrest was made. 

On May 18th, 2018 almost about 100 dead bodies of dogs were found in the forest area in Kongara, Hyderabad.

A pregnant goat was gang raped by 8 men in Gurgaon, Haryana on July 29th 2018 and was later declared dead. 

In August 2017, a man was held accused for raping a young female puppy to death. 

In January, 2018 a man in Vadodara allegedly raped 3 cows in Vadodara. A case was filed under section 295A of the IPC which defines deliberate and malicious acts done intentionally to insult the religious feelings of any religious class.

Types of Animal Abuse

Sexual Abuse (Bestiality)

Bestiality is term given to an intercourse between a human and non-human (animal). It basically refers to the degrading act of a human having sexual intercourse with an animal. Horrific and disturbing cases of rage against animals are on the headlines very often nowadays. It is not an uncommon-phenomena anymore. In July, 2018, a pregnant goat was gangraped by 8 men in Haryana, Gujarat. In the same month, a 35-year-old man was accused of allegedly having sex with a female dog in his house in Kolkata. A similar incident was reported in Vadodara, where 3 pregnant cows were raped by a single man, who worked as a laborer. Such incidents are a clear proof to the fact that there is no decency and humanity left in human beings. Most people believe that animals do not have the same rights as humans. Their life is considered less important. People need to understand that animals are the creatures who cannot speak; hence they are more vulnerable to any kind of cruelty and brutality. 60% of the women who were victims of domestic violence claim that their husbands had a history of either killing or harming animals. Study in criminology and psychology reveals that people who commit acts of cruelty on animals, move to humans as their next target. 

Physical Domestic Abuse

This is a type of abuse where the violence inflicted upon the animals is absolutely intentional. The motive is to cause deep injury, severe pain and mental trauma to the animal. Physical violence creates an environment for the animals which makes them feel dominated, terrorized and frightened. Some people are incapable of showing love and affection to animals. Domestic abuse can take up many forms such as beating, stabbing, kicking, starving, neglecting, burning etc. If a man can beat, hit or cause harm to his own wife, then there is a very high probability that he might do the same with his own pet. One of the most tragic incidents of this kind happened in 2016. A medical student of Chennai, India, threw a 5-month-old puppy off the roof of his terrace. Although the puppy survived, it sustained many serious and internal injuries. 

Organised Animal Abuse

Organized animal abuse is a form of animal abuse in the way of animal fighting like dog fighting, bull fighting and cock fighting, mostly for entertainment purposes. It is a staged form of fight where animals are prepared to fight against each other in a very violent and aggressive way. In the end, animals either die or are immensely hurt. Such fights are mostly underground hence they are well hidden from the eyes of the authority. The identification of such fights is a difficult process as it is very secretive in nature. Animal fighting in many countries is illegal as it usually involves gambling, money laundering and drug dealing. 

Laboratory testing and Product Experimentation

As hard as it is to believe, the truth is whatever product we wear, we use or we carry, is first tested on the animals. Animals and humans are not the same. Their body reacts to different types of products in a completely different way which can prove to be extremely harmful and painful. Every year millions of animals are subjected to such ruthless product testing where harmful drugs and chemicals are dripped into their throat, rubbed onto their skin or even dropped into their eyes. This leaves them in a lot of pain, agony, discomfort and suffering. Animals are kept in small caged dark and confined places, where they are mentally and physically tortured. As a result, many animals die writhing in pain. Animal testing is done even for the products which actually do not need a testing, but beauty and cosmetic companies still choose to go for it as to find any remaining flaws or side effects or chemical reaction. Europe, Israel and India banned the sale of any cosmetic and beauty product which requires the need of animal testing. 

                               Click Above

Simple neglect and Animal Hoarding

Animal hoarding means owning an unusually higher number of pets. Animal hoarders are animal lovers and they love their pets so much that they find it difficult to let go of them. It’s more of a mental disorder which ultimately leads to them harming their pets. This happens because the owner of the pets finds it tedious and difficult to take care of so many pets at a time i.e. after a period of time, they leave them unattended and neglected. It involves starvation, dehydration, infection, diseases, improper veterinary care, chaining for a long duration in severe weather conditions etc. Therefore, lack of proper nutrition and welfare to the animals does categorize under animal abuse. 

Laws implemented for Animal Abuse

In the Constitution of India, 1949

Article 48 talks about improvement of agriculture and animal husbandry. It provides guidelines for the state to organize agriculture and animal husbandry based on new modern and scientific methods and to get rid of the old traditional ones. It prohibits the practice of animal slaughtering and imposes a complete ban on the slaughtering of cows, calves, milch and draught cattle.

Article 48A talks about the protection of the environment and wildlife. It directs the state to protect and improve the condition of the environment, safeguard and preserve the forests and wildlife of the country.

Article 51A lays down the 11 fundamental duties that were added in the Constitution by the 42nd Amendment act, 1976. Article 51A(g) specifies that it is the utmost duty of every citizen to protect and preserve the natural environment which includes the wild life, forests, lakes, rivers etc. It also lays that the citizens must have feelings of compassion and love towards the animals. 

In the Indian Penal Code, 1860

Section 428 and Section 429 lay down that a person who commits any mischief on animals or cattle with a motive of either causing harm, injury, killing, poisoning or maiming them will be held punishable with fine or imprisonment up to 5 years or both. Section 377 lays down that sexual intercourse between a man and animal is a cognizable and non-bailable offence. It can be termed as an unnatural offence. Whoever has carnal intercourse with any man, woman or animal against the order of nature will be liable to a punishment of imprisonment of life or imprisonment which may extend up to 10 years and shall be liable to fine.

The Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960

Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act was enacted in 1960 by the Parliament of India to prevent the infliction of unnecessary cruelty and the brutality on animals. It lays down the acts and the behavior which would amount to animal cruelty and their corresponding punishments. Section 11 of the PCA, 1960 lays down the major offences which clearly amount to animal cruelty. 

Section 11(1)

 This lays down the offences relating to Animal Cruelty. They are as follows:

If a person beats, kicks, overrides, tortures or treats any animal as to subject it to immense pain, suffering, agony and discomfort. Or if the owner of the animal permits it to be treated that way. 

If the owner of the animal permits it to be employed in any kind of work or labor which is unfit and inappropriate for the health of the animal due to any kind of infection, disease, wound or even age.

If a person intentionally and unreasonably injects or administers any kind of harmful drug or chemical into the bodies of animals. Even the attempt to do so is an offence.

Transportation or carrying of animals in a vehicle in such a manner that it causes them pain and discomfort.

Keeping an animal caged or confined in a space which is extremely small or not suitable for its size.

When an owner of an animal unreasonably neglects it by excessive solid chaining for a long period of time in a confined space.

Failure in providing an animal with the right amount of nutrition, sufficient food, drinking water etc.

Abandoning animals without any reasonable cause which leads to deprivation of food, water and shelter.

Permitting an animal while it is affected by a contagious disease or infection to go out in the streets without any protection. Letting any disabled or affected animal die in the streets.

Offer of sale of an animal suffering immense pain due to starvation, thirst, mutilation or any other harsh treatment.

Mutilation or killing of any animal (including stray dogs) by the use of any strychnine injection into the heart or any other brutal way or manner.

 Keeping an animal in a confined caged space either for entertainment purposes or to pose as a bait or prey to some other animal. Provoking or instigating animals to fight against each other.

Use of animals either for animal fighting or animal baiting like dog fighting, cock fighting, bull fighting etc.

Animals being used to shooting matches or competitions where they are brutally shot.

All the above offences are punishable by law. In case of an offence committed for the first time, a fine of not less than not less than ten rupees is imposed which may extend up to fifty rupees. In case of an offence committed for a subsequent time, within 3 years of the previous offence, a fine of not less than twenty-five rupees which may extend up to fifty rupees is imposed or with imprisonment for a term of 3 months or both. 

Section 12: Prohibition of practising Phooka

Phooka is known as the practice of injecting a harmful kind of substance or drug into the bodies of cows or any cattle to improve the process of lactation. This practice is prohibited since it proves to be very harmful and painful to the animals. Liable to a fine which may extend up to one thousand rupees or imprisonment up to 2 years or both.

Section 13: Order for Destruction of Suffering Animals

When the owner of the animal is convicted of an offence under section 11, if the court is satisfied that it would be cruel enough to keep the animal alive, then the court shall direct a lawful order to cause the destruction of that animal. A person will be assigned to destroy the animal without causing any more unreasonable harm and suffering. Any expenses incurred during the destruction process shall be paid by the owner as fine. This is done so as to free such animal from the immense pain, torture and suffering that it will endure if it were to be alive, which would amount to cruelty. This destruction method is put into use when the animal is either severely diseased or injured. 

Section 14: Experimentation and Product Testing of Animals 

Although the act does not provide any penalties, it renders the performance of laboratory experiments and product testing on animals unlawful. India is the first South-Asian country to impose a ban on the Cosmetic animal testing. The bureau of Indian Standards has confirmed the removal of animal testing by the cosmetic brands. Any manufacturer who wishes to run a test of the cosmetic ingredients or finished products, must seek permission from the India’s Central Drug Standards Organization Control. A manufacturer will be given permission only if he agrees to the BIS non-animal testing standards. 

As per Section 148(c) of the Drugs and Cosmetic rules 1945, cosmetic testing on animals have been banned within the country. 

As per Section 135(b) of the Drugs and Cosmetic rules, 1945, import of cosmetic goods which are tested on animals abroad have been banned within the country. 

The Wild Life Protection Act, 1972

The Wildlife Protection Act was enacted by the Parliament of India on 9th September, 1972. It consists of 66 sections and 6 schedules. The main objective of the act was to provide protection to the wildlife flora and fauna and prevent unnecessary infliction of harm on animals. 

Section 9: Prohibition of Hunting 

Hunting is prohibited under section 9 of the Chapter III of The Wildlife Protection Act, 1972. Hunting of any wild animals specified under Schedule I, schedule II and schedule III of the act is illegal and prohibited.

Section 38(J): Prohibition of Teasing, Injuring Animals in Zoo

Section 38 (J) under chapter IV A lays down that any person who injures, teases, molests or causes any kind of harm or discomfort to the animals in the zoo will be held punishable by the law.

Section 51: Provisions for Penalties 

Whoever violates the provisions of section 38 (J) will be held liable for a term of imprisonment up to 6 months or a fine which may extend up to two thousand rupees or both. 

Chapter VA deals with the prohibition of trade and commerce of any article, weapons or trophies etc. derived from the skin of animals. Any person violating the provisions of this chapter will be punishable with a term of imprisonment not less than three years and also with a fine not less than ten thousand rupees. 

Any person who violates the provisions of section 9 or commits any offence (hunts or hurts) against an animal specified in schedule I, II, III or IV will be punishable with a term of imprisonment not less than 3 years which may extend up to 7 years and with a fine not less than twenty-five thousand rupees or both. For the first time offenders, imprisonment terms remaining the same and with a fine of ten thousand rupees. 

Landmark Judgments

                               Click Above

Animal Welfare Board of India v. A. Nagaraja & Ors. 

In 2014, the Supreme court banned the practice of Jallikattu in Tamil Nadu. Jallikattu is a cultural and traditional sport of Tamil Nadu which involves the men trying to claim a bag of coins attached to the horns of a raging bull which would prove their masculinity. It is a sport which involves raging bulls being trained to fight for the sole purpose of the public’s entertainment. This was considered to be a very old ritualistic sport in Tamil Nadu. 

The Tamil Nadu government had passed the Tamil Nadu Registration of Jallikattu Act, 2009 which allowed the continuance of sport in adherence to certain guidelines. An appeal was by the AWBI to ban the sport of bull fighting on the grounds of cruelty and brutality caused to the bulls. It was argued that to incite the bulls for fighting, they were chained, threatened and beaten up ruthlessly. They were subjected to inhumane treatment which made them feel threatened and scared. During Jallikattu, people harass, beat and twist the tails of the bulls to scare them. This all amounts to cruelty which stands in violation of section 3, section 11 1(a), section 11 1(m)(ii), section 21 and section 22 of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animal Act, 1960. Section 21 and 22 prohibits the training of any animals for any kind of exhibition or entertainment for public viewing.

The Supreme Court held that although Jallikattu is considered as an old custom and tradition, it is a clear depiction of cruelty and inhumanity on animals, thus leading to prohibition of the PCA, 1960. According to 51 A(g) and 51 A(h) of the Constitution, it is the utmost duty of every citizen to protect animals and develop feelings of compassion and kindness to animals. Thus, the Supreme court held that all the animal incited fights are illegal and should be discontinued so as to prevent unnecessary suffering on animals. 

N.R. Nair & Ors. v. Union of India & Ors. 

The main challenge in this judgement was the validity of section 22 of the PCA, 1960. Section 22 of the PCA, 1960 states that no animal or any animal which is specified by the Central Government, by notification in the Official Gazette, shall be trained or exhibited as performing animals for the purpose of viewer’s entertainment. Animals specified are monkeys, bears, tigers, lions and panthers. 

Section 24 of the PCA, 1960 lays down the power of the court to prohibit the training and exhibition of performing animals. If the magistrate is satisfied upon a complaint being filed that the training and exhibition of performing animals is accompanied by unnecessary harm and cruelty, then the court has the power to prohibit the same.

The learned counsel of the appellants argued on the basis that there were no guidelines provided under section 22(ii) of the PCA, 1960 on the basis of which the central government could ban the training and exhibition of animals. Apart from this, they held the argument that section 24 and section 22(ii) of the PCA, 1960 could only be applicable when the magistrate has enough evidence or is satisfied that the training or exhibition of animals is causing them unnecessary harm, injury or discomfort. 

But the Kerala High Court upheld the judgement that section 22 is an absolute necessity to prevent animal cruelty and the circus owners are refrained from training or exhibition of the five animals mentioned above. Because, performance of animals requires training and training might cause discomfort and harm to them without any reasonable cause as they are kept caged and confined. Welfare and safety of the animals was the utmost priority and if the government was satisfied that there is infliction of unnecessary harm and suffering on the animal while the training and exhibition, then the prohibition of this is a must. 

State of Uttar Pradesh v. Mustakeem & Ors.

In this case, an F.I.R was filed against the owner of the goats as they were found to be transported for slaughter in a very cruel and harsh manner with their legs tied to each other with a thick rope. This violated section 11 of The Prevention of Cruelty to Animal Act, 1960. Since then, the cattle were confiscated from the owner and were in the custody of the police. Later, they were given to the nearest gaushala of the society. The appellant counsel argued on the basis that the gaushala did not have a locus standi in the matter, hence cannot claim a right on the cattle. However, the U.P High court returned the custody of the cattle to the owner while the matter was still under trial.

The Supreme Court upheld the judgement that once an animal has been removed from the custody of the owner on the basis of cruelty, the animal will not be given back to the custody of the owner until the trial is over. Instead, they are to be handed over to the nearest gaushala, under the care and supervision of the State Government, as long as the trial continues. The relevant factors to be taken into consideration as are follows:

The seriousness and nature of the offence committed by the owner.

Whether it is the first offence under the PCA, 1960 or a subsequent one. 

If it is the first offence of the owner, then the animal is not allowed to be taken away from his custody, thus he will have a better claim.

The condition of the animal at the time of inspection which would prove the gravity and nature of the cruelty. 

If there is any possibility of the animal being subjected to cruelty again. 

Depraved Religious Customs: Culture or Cruelty

Gadhimai Festival, Nepal

Gadhimai sacrifice is considered to be one of the world’s largest animal sacrifices that takes place in the Gadhimai temple, in the Bara district of Nepal. This animal sacrifice takes place on the 28th and 29th of November, once in every five years. It includes the inhumane slaughtering of at least 500,000 innocent animals in two days. This mass sacrifice is considered to be one of the cruelest forms of animal killing where they are beheaded ruthlessly several times, causing a slow and painful death.

The worshippers of Gadhimai Goddess believe that causing a spillage of blood would please her and thus the people would be free from their sin, bad deeds, anger etc. According to the reports, 500,000 animals were killed in 2009 and 300,000 animals were killed in 2014. The buffalo calves look at their mothers, all frightened and terrified while they are slaughtered in front of them. In 2015, the Gadhimai Temple Trust officially placed a ban on the slaughtering of animals and animal sacrifices, which was a victory for the animal activists and the Animal Welfare Network Nepal. In 2019, the Supreme Court of Nepal directed the government to impose a total ban on the animal sacrifice at the festival. 

The Yulin Dog Meat Festival 

The Yulin dog meat festival is an annual 10 day event celebrated in Yulin, a city situated in the Guangxi province of China. It takes place during 21st to 30th June every year where over 10,000 dogs are slaughtered and eaten by the people. Even cat meat and lychees are available at the festival. This festival is considered as a custom as people believe that eating dogs during the hottest time of the year will bring them happiness and good luck. Eating dogs is not considered illegal in China, hence people do not see it as a way of inflicting cruelty on the dogs. They consider it as a part of their diet. Around 10-20 million of dogs are killed every year for human consumption. This festival has created a lot of controversy as the innocent dogs are mercilessly slaughtered and put up for sale. Until now, no ban has been imposed on the festival and the Yulin Municipality claims that it is difficult to prohibit this festival from being celebrated as it does not even exist as an official event. 

Nem Thoung Pig Slaughter Festival

This annual pig parade festival is celebrated every lunar year in the northern village of Nem Thoung, in the Bac Ninh province of Vietnam. It is an annual pig slaughter festival which has been in the disguise of an old tradition for almost 800 years. The pigs are painted, paraded round the town and later they are brutally slaughtered by the executioners. The local people believe that dipping their money in the blood of the killed pigs will bring them wealth and good luck for the year. The pigs are brutally slaughtered in two halves in front of the spectators, with their legs tied up. In 2015, the Vietnamese Ministry had declared that all such festivals should cease immediately and an order for the same was enacted on 5th February, 2016. Although the public slaughtering of the pigs has stopped, the private killings of pigs as a ritual still continues. 

Faroe Island Killing, Denmark

Every summer around 800 pilot whales are killed in the bays of Torshavn in the Faroe Islands, Denmark. It is claimed that whale meat and blubber is a part of the natural diet of the people in Faroe Islands. 100,000 dolphins and small whales are killed every year due to this unsustainable and illegal killing. The fishermen use spinal lace as their weapon to slit open the neck of the whales and severely injure the spinal cord which results in death within seconds. The whales are killed in a very merciless way, the sea turns red due to the bloodshed. It is a 5hour hunt where the pilot whales are chased and harassed on the boats. The hunt does not spare any member of the pod, be it the pregnant whales or the little baby whales. 

2019 saw the eleventh hunt at Vestmanna on the Faroe Islands, with more than 600 pilot whales being killed. It is also said that consumption of whale meat can prove harmful for the humans due to the mercury contamination in the bodies of whales and dolphins. However, till date people still see this as a tradition and festival and not as a way of inhumanity and cruelty inflicted on innocent creatures.

Conclusion 

For most of the people worldwide, meat is considered as a go-to meal, be it breakfast, lunch or dinner. What most of the people don’t realize is how and from where all the meat and chicken in the world is coming from. Animal cruelty is a very sensitive and serious issue. Pain is felt by each and every living organism, be it humans or animals. The brutal action against the innocent creatures is rarely acknowledged and very few people feel the urge of raising their voice against animal cruelty. Therefore, by the way of this paper, I tried to focus on the types of animal cruelty, the depraved customs and traditions which are practiced across the world. People should know that all lives matter, be it humans or animals. It can be seen how humans misuse their power and lack the feelings of love and compassion towards the animals. Animals do not have any rights of their own, they do not have a voice to protect themselves from cruelty, thus they go through unspeakable sufferings daily. Just as humans, even animals deserve to lead a happy and painless life. As humans, it is our duty to speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves. 

References

https://ift.tt/13EXNNC

https://www.peta.org/

https://ift.tt/2ACmYJr

https://www.thebetterindia.com/

https://ift.tt/1UjCB5R

https://ift.tt/37pxrEu

https://www.hsi.org/

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[2020-vcp-thesis-project-refugees]

03.05.2020 VCP2 WEEKLY REPORT

Report 7

Just a few words…

          In fact, doing a comprehensive research provides a plenty of insights into the content of a subject. Having the multifaceted knowledge of a subject makes a scholar self-confident. In this case, the scholar gets an opportunity of doing interesting observations and making unique arguments when doing a study. In previous studies on hashtag movements, the right-wing discourse is always associated with misogyny, racism and oppression. In my case, the right-wing discourse is double-sided. On one hand, some right-with actors are using a misogynistic and racist language in the context of Syrian refugees, on the other hand, some right-wing actors supports Syrian refugees.

Reading the research material

           This week, to be sure about the uniqueness of my argument in my thesis, I revised all studies about hashtag movements. Actually, most of the studies in the context of hashtag activism are about feminist activism, including Turkish ones. While some studies are pure feminist reading of a case, some of them focuses on the interaction between race and gender. More specifically, these works examines the portrayal of black women’s hashtag movements. In a nutshell, they argue that social media platforms can be alternative spaces for women of color to express themselves freely. In this sense, social media is more democratic than news coverage in mainstream media.

           One of the most intriguing hashtag movements is #AskThicke. Horeck’s study (2014) focuses #AskThicke movement which is introduced on social media as protest and reaction against misogynistic lyrics of “Blurred Lines” written by Robin Thicke and Pharrel Williams. Under this hashtag, participants humorously criticized Thicke by asking questions (Horeck, 2014, p. 1105–1107). Another study that examines the usage of hashtag activism against sexism is Drüeke and Zobl’s study (2016) (Drüeke & Zobl, 2016, p. 35-54). This study argues that Twitter adopts the function of a simple public, where values and norms are negotiated at everyday level. More specifically, drawing upon the movement of #aufschrei, this article analyzes the sexism nd sexual harassment in German-speaking world. Based on the collected data, this study argues that Twitter does not offer a safe space; anti-feminist and sexist comments are equally visible and might signify new experiences of violence for women (Drüeke & Zobl, 2016, p. 35-51).

           In 2017, Indian government defined sanitary pads as luxury good used by women and increased the Goods and Services Tax (GST) on them. Later on, the womens’s rights organization SheSays introduced the hashtag of #LahukaLagaan(tax on blood) on social media. Also, this organization started a petition campaign called #DontTaxMyPeriod with the aim of abolishing the tax on sanitary pad. This hashtag movement had a great media coverage both locally (Times of India, Daily News and Analysis, Hindustan Times and The Economic Times) and internationally (The Huffington Post, NPR, The New York Times and The Guardian). In my case, only online news sites (local) like Time Turk, Diken and Yeni Şafak applied to media coverage. Also, celebrities joined this movement. This struggle is very important for Indian women because according to official numbers 88 percent of Indian women struggle with menstruation with unhygenic methods and the reason behind it is financial burden. In addition to this, the main reason for a high number of absenteeism among female students in schools of rural India is the expensiveness of sanitary pads. However, this hashtag movement achieved its goal partially. Although Ministry of finance did not abolish the tax on sanitary pads, it decreased the percentage of tax on them. Here, again the transformative force of hashtag activism is discernible (Fadnis, 2017, p. 1111-1113).

           Feuntes’s study (2019) examines the violence against women and femicide on social media in the context of hashtag of #NiUnaMenos (Not One Woman Less). Feuntes’s concept of “hashtag performativity” highlights the work hashtags do as anchors of digitally networked iterative or citational practices with worldmaking effects. In NUM’s activism, hashtags shape feminist publics, help disseminate counter-pedagogies seeking to debunk patriarchal pedagogies of cruelty, and, ultimately, usher in utopian futures (Altınay, Contreras, Hirsch, Howard, Karaca & Solomon, 2019, p. 172-186).

           Some hashtag movements are on the intersection point of race and gender. Especially, they are about black feminists’s resistance against racism-oriented sexism. Drawing upon hashtag movements such as, #JadaPose, #StandWithJada, #JusticeForJada, #JadaCounterPose, #SupportJada, #IAmJada, #BlackFeministFuture, #RememberRenisha #FreeCeCe and #FastTailedGirls, Williams (2015) argues that black feminists’s usage of hashtag activism is a unique fusion of social justice, technology, and citizen journalism (Williams, 2015, p. 341-343). Drawing upon the hashtag movements like #UrgentAction4Women, #EndFGM (female genital mutilation), #VAWFree, #Power101, #lifewithoutpatriarchy and #16days, Kangere, Kemitare and Michau (2017) argues that social media is a promising tool to reinforce feminism, feminist organizing and movement-building (Kangere, Kemitare & Michau, 2017, p. 899-902).

Drawing upon the movements like #bystanderintervetion and #YouOkSis?, Rentschler (2017) supports that the social media tactics of a transformative justice informed framework on bystander intervention constitute a particular kind of networked feminist witnessing centred by the experiences of women of color and a model of justice that challenge police violence and incarceration. Hashtagged conversations serve as key sites of knowledge production about feminist bystander intervention that feed into the development of movement organizations and their own process of community accountability and survivor support (Rentschler, 2017, p. 55-579). Based on the content analysis of 60 posts on Tumblr in the context of #BlackDontCrack, Mondé’s study (2018) examines how the struggle on Tumblr can challenge stereotypical depictions of aging black women in American culture. Based on the different images, this study argues that content producers (either celebrity elites or ordinary users) manage impressions of black women and do so in ways that offer a new narrative counter to historicaly negative representations of black American women (Mondé, 2018, p. 47-57).

References

Altınay Ayşe Gül. (2019). Women mobilizing memory. New York: Columbia University Press.

Drüeke, R., & Zobl, E. (2016). Online feminist protest against sexism: the German-language hashtag #aufschrei. Feminist Media Studies, 16(1), 35–54. doi: 10.1080/14680777.2015.1093071

Fadnis, D. (2017). Feminist activists protest tax on sanitary pads: attempts to normalize conversations about menstruation in India using hashtag activism. Feminist Media Studies, 17(6), 1111–1114. doi: 10.1080/14680777.2017.1380430

Horeck, T. (2014). #AskThicke: “Blurred Lines,” Rape Culture, and the Feminist Hashtag Takeover. Feminist Media Studies, 14(6), 1105–1107. doi: 10.1080/14680777.2014.975450

Kangere, M., Kemitare, J., & Michau, L. (2017). Hashtag activism: popularizing feminist analysis of violence against women in the Horn, East and Southern Africa. Feminist Media Studies, 17(5), 899–902. doi: 10.1080/14680777.2017.1350526

Mondé, G. C. (2018). #BlackDontCrack: a content analysis of the aging Black woman in social media. Feminist Media Studies, 18(1), 47–60. doi: 10.1080/14680777.2018.1409972

Williams, S. (2015). Digital Defense: Black Feminists Resist Violence With Hashtag Activism. Feminist Media Studies, 15(2), 341–344. doi: 10.1080/14680777.2015.1008744

Rentschler, C. A. (2017). Bystander intervention, feminist hashtag activism, and the anti-carceral politics of care. Feminist Media Studies, 17(4), 565–584. doi: 10.1080/14680777.2017.1326556

NOTE: THIS IS AN HOMEWORK FOR BILKENT UNIVERSITY!

[dontshootmespence]

A Tragic Connection

A/N: An anon request where the reader works for the BAU and one day, they come across a case that reminds the reader of what happened to her in high school. She’s never told the team what she went through, so when she breaks down, Spencer is there to comfort her. @coveofmemories @sexualemobitch @jamiemelyn

Warnings: Past rape

                                                              ----

After being debriefed of the few details they had, Hotch told everyone to meet on the jet. Two hours later, they’d arrived in Nebraska. All they had was that the man was in his late-40s and had been brutally murdered with a knife by way of his genitals being severed with an extremely sharp knife. A few of the local officers joined them in the conference room as they started to go over what they had.

“Well, I don’t think anyone can deny that being killed by having your genitals ripped off has to mean something,” you said. It could very well be that the unsub had an issue with themselves regarding sex or their gender that stemmed out into murder, or it could be revenge for something the victim had done, or a representation of the victim. There were so many possibilities. 

Hotch quickly asked Garcia to bring up any arrest records on the man that had been identified as convenience store owner, Jared Mosedich, age 47. “Mr. Mosedich is not as squeaky clean as he appears to be at first glance,” she said, bringing up every possible piece of information she had on him. “Up until a couple of years ago, he was your everyday ordinary guy. He had a wife and three kids, all boys. He paid his bills on time. Owned a home. Had a car. Seemed relatively normal. Until two years ago, when he was accused of raping a 16-year-old employee. The alleged victim, Lydia Dessen, claimed that one night after work, while she was waiting for a friend to pick her up, Jared pinned her to the wall of the store and raped her. He was eventually acquitted after Lydia claimed that she couldn’t testify against him. She couldn’t see him again, so he got away with it.”

“Or he didn’t do it,” Officer Stanton said from the back. “Innocent until proven guilty?”

You swallowed hard. It was likely to assume that someone wanted to make him suffer from what he’d done to Lydia, hence the killing through genital mutilation. “We have to look through all possible lenses, Officer,” Hotch said quickly. 

As the only daughter of a single mother, you and your mother were close, so when your employee for your crappy, minimum-wage job cornered you in his office, held a knife to your throat and told you to keep quiet or he’d kill your mother, all the while running his hand up your legs, you’d been too scared to do anything else. You cried as he violated you, his cigarette-stained hands silencing your cries of pain mixed with gagging over the smell of him. It was barely three minutes later when he said he was done with you, to go home, and never speak of it again or he’d make good on his threat. 

The tears stung your eyes as you realized that someone had probably taken this man out for what he’d done to Lydia, but you quickly shook the emotions off. He never got to pay for what he did, so someone made him pay. Apparently, you’d been spaced out for quite a few minutes, because when your mind returned to the conversation, the same officer was saying that he knew Jared Mosedich and that he was a good man. “The girl” had been troubled and “had a history of telling lies.” Victim-blaming at its finest. 

“Did you know Lydia?” you asked.

“Who?” He was actually serious. 

“The girl,” you said more emphatically. “The girl’s name is Lydia. Did you know her?” He shook his head quickly, as if it had nothing to do with what he was saying. “Then you don’t know anything of her history.” 

You opened your mouth to continue talking, rant at him about what a misogynistic prick he sounded like, but you stopped yourself, watching as Spencer’s eyes fell on you, asking questions you weren’t sure you wanted to answer. Hotch gave everyone their orders; you and Spencer would be interviewing Lydia and her parents.

On the way there, you said nothing, not trusting yourself to speak. There was this overwhelming feeling inside you that you were going to share your own story with Lydia, meaning Spencer would know too. Fifteen minutes later, you entered their house. She had been very upfront with her parents about what happened and they were 100 percent supportive, so when you asked her if you could speak alone about what happened, she said she’d talk, but she wanted her parents to be there. 

Spencer sat behind you, allowing you to take the lead. Although he probably assumed that she wouldn’t want to be interviewed by a man, he didn’t realize that you and Lydia shared a tragic connection. “I was waiting for a friend of mine to come pick me up after work one night. My friend said she was going to be a few minutes late because she was sneaking out of her face to come get me to go to a party, and when I went to get something out of my bag, Jared came up behind me and pushed me against the wall.” Her eyes started to water and she shivered, despite the fact that it was the middle of the summer and she was wearing a long-sleeve shirt. “I didn’t know what was happening. He placed his hand on my throat and pushed up my skirt. It was like 2 minutes and I pushed him and begged him to stop, but he didn’t. When he was done, he just dropped me to the floor and left.” She looked up at you both, tears streaming down her face. “Why would you believe me? No one but my parents do.”

“I do,” you said confidently. “I believe you.”

“Why? How can you believe me? You don’t even know me.”

You sighed, turning back to Spencer. His look of confusion would be wiped away momentarily. “I know me. I know what I looked like and what I felt like when I was raped and I can see the same thing in you.” It was barely audible, but you heard a gasp at your back. You’d never let on that anything like this had happened to you before. “I was about your age when I was raped by my employer. He held a knife to my throat in his office and told me if I ever told anyone, he’d kill my mother. I’ve never told anyone until now. Until you.” 

Lydia’s face dropped, knowing instantly that you were being truthful. After asking her what questions you needed to ask, and giving her a hug, you and Spencer left the house in silence. “I’m sorry, Y/N,” he said finally.

“It’s in the past,” you said. It wasn’t. When something like that happened to you it never really was, but you said it anyway. “I’m just glad she could hear that she’s not alone.” Everything you’d been feeling over the past couple of hours came flooding out, the tears stinging your eyes and cheeks as they poured out of you. “I’m sorry, I just...”

Getting out of the car, Spencer walked over the driver’s side and reached his hand out for you. “Come here,” he said softly. You buried your face in his neck and sobbed, recounting everything that happened to you that day as he smoothed your hair and rubbed your back. “I’m here. I promise I’ll never let anyone hurt you like that ever again.”

When you pulled away, you saw his own eyes glistening with tears. “And I won’t tell anyone,” he said, wiping the tear from your cheek. Without thinking, you leaned up and kissed him, thankful that someone you loved knew the whole you.

[lifeinechos]

A Cult named “AF Matthew”

Preface: 

26 June 2017:

 I joined IIM Kozhikode to pursue my Masters considering:-

Engineering job at an MNC in India is low paying and has a low growth curve (Though my work was exciting, and for a fresher R&D job was a dream come true)

My family’s financial health didn’t allow me to go abroad and take admission in a great MS institute (i loved engineering), and didn’t want to settle there as well in the long run in order to pay-off the loan undertaken

So, i wrote CAT(admission test for MBA in India) and got into this college. Though i was engineer by blood, but who cares. You have to feed yourself and in India, you need an MBA to swing up the ladder. It was here i came across this legend!

5 March 2019:

I bid like all my fortune(in this case grade-points), to get allotted the subject taught by AF Matthew! Had heard a lot about him, and as i was few of those unlucky souls who weren’t given an opportunity to attend his sessions in the first year, this was long due.

And, well fast forward to the end of the session, it was all worth it! He challenged my thoughts, ideals, questioned my beliefs and swiftly moulded me. Whatever he said wasn’t at all sweet and soft. There were times when the entire world which i was a part of for 25years in my life, came tumbling down. But he had his facts, and he was RIGHT! 

He showed us the classics which was too much for a mainstream person i was, for whom a classic meant Lord of Rings franchise or Rocky Balboa Series, and then i was a transformed intelligent soul, now who could sit in a group and take part in knowledgeable discussions, and not fight based on mob-opinions. Also was I struggling with the aftermath of a life-threatening accident i had on Sept 14th,2018. I was no more a confident girl who was strong-headed in her stance and could think clearly in the midst of difficult situations. I was running from my inabilities and HE gave me the strength to face them! 

The following piece is a tribute to him and the art to which he exposed me and built a better person if not perfect. The journey is long no doubt, but i am forever indebted to have had the foundation stone laid by him.

PS, this is a reflective essay which i wove around my life based on the movies and art (highlighted and referenced in the piece) he exposed me to.

“Everyday I breathe, effortlessly I lie Roll back my tears and curl up a fake smile There THEY stand, every movement do THEY eye With my head held high, its time to push another mile”

The statue of Liberty… Yes, this is where my earliest memory of the word “liberty” takes me to. Today, as I write this piece after 30 hours of mental turmoil, I found myself in GC’s class, it would be rather befitting if once I could stand straight, look into the mirror and confront myself. Its long that I have hidden myself in a cocoon of safety and comfort, and hopefully here in this reflective narrative I am able to “woman-up” to my vices and insecurities. 3 Colours: Blue incited in me an emotion which until recently was a far-fetched dream. For the first time in my life, I felt “liberated” too much to the extent that I don’t shy away from the idea of being alone. The night of 14th September 2018 changed my life or so did I think. Now, as I look at it, I wouldn’t be exaggerating if I speak out loud that it “completed me”. Empathising with Julie’s struggle to let herself free as she tried to pay off all her debts and run away from her past, I understand clearly now why after my accident I found it difficult to be at rest. Always was I trying to push people away- blaming & snapping away from someone who’ll try to give me solace.

It was a time when all I wondered was what could I ever do wrong to have had this fate. After 6-pelvic fractures, 1-shoulder fracture, 1-hip surgery and a bleeding clot that rendered half of my brain unreceptive; I feel I am in a good condition to vouch for Julie’s behaviour to untie herself from all bodily aspirations when you are not able to settle the turmoil of emotions that challenges your mere existence day in and day out. Countless times have I found myself since that day questioning my actions, feelings, thoughts and more than that the people around me. “Why me” was something that kept me up at night and tired & helpless all I could do was hide myself in my room away from the eyes that always seem to follow me. It took me long to realise that those eyes actually were supportive of me and some of them genuinely were ready to take part in my sufferings as I once again started a quest to discover myself. But even that was not enough. No matter how much have I been the admirer of the emotions with which HW Longfellow’s “A Psalm of Life” claims that “Life is anything but an empty dream”, there were times when everything around me felt futile. When anyways everything is supposed to end, why the struggle to end everyday with perfection? In fraction of seconds, the course of life can be changed so much that you never know if it’s the end. These months have been long, tiring and restless to the extent that I would end up scratching myself, inflicting pain just to remind myself that it would all be over soon. Everything is supposed to end and this too shall pass.

In the beginning of the end, you try to treasure onto the memories you have in order to make them last longer. Same did I experience in these last few weeks. Change is inevitable and no-one is ready to accommodate it into their lives that easily. My days in campus are about to get over and all I can see now is a life full of competitions and unnecessary races for which I am not prepared for, rather not been accustomed to for long. Then one day sitting by the edge of my classroom, lost into the serene surroundings into which my college is built; I let my thoughts take a flight just like the flapping wings of the bird I was staring at. I was no more scared to be lost. There is a world full of possibilities and it stuck me that just one setback doesn’t define your future or justify your past. I came onto terms with my life. I accepted my limited ability and sufferings that accompany the same, something which I know will eventually pass no matter how hard it seems now. Something which I was looking and searching for outside, was inside me. That thought gave me power. It gave me freedom. I accepted that the unfortunate incident was no-one’s fault and accepted the things as they are now. I forgave myself,those who were in the car with me that night and decided to move on, following my life’s route destined. The moment I faced these things, I was no more caged. Neither did I feel helpless, nor did I want to hide. Rather, I started respecting and treasuring all the more those who were throughout besides me in these unfortunate times no matter what. And then I decided lets “Leave Footprints on the sands of time”.

Yet another gush of emotions I felt was in the face of acceptance of the fact that how society has long demeaned women and have pre-decided their boundaries from the day they were born. And if you decide to over-step these “Lakshman-Rekhas” created, you have exposed yourself to the barbaric world and are immoral for sure if not unholy. The movie Caterpillar lays out one such example and shoves conservatism straight in the face. Lieutenant Kurokawa serves the right-wing parties and rapes the women on his way claiming them as the spoils of war. But once he comes back home mutilated, the desire to dominate still doesn’t seem to leave him which can be easily seen in his sexual intimacy with his wife. He seems to force again himself on her with aggression when all she does is take care of him, feed him and carry out all other “duties” that a woman is bound to carry out for her man. Well, in this case, he is the “War-Lord”. Many-a-times have I seen this in my surroundings, silently closed my eyes and kept quiet because this is how the system has trained me till date. My mother used to feed us, wash our clothes, clean our mess and all I would do was to accept it as it is because its her duty. And why was not it supposed to be? Didn’t I fill in my school almanac “Housewife” against her occupation field! The pain and cries of the women in Invisible War even more made me question the system I have been brought up in. There are facts and then there are beliefs. When and how did I start accepting, or when did my mother start accepting that she has to subdue to my father’s wills. Or when did I justified the sad reality that dress modestly else you can get molested, or worse raped! I was mere 10 years old when every morning while going to the school a man used to swiftly pass by pulling my skirt from the small gaps under my rickshaw. At that time, I didn’t even know how to behave or react. Though I knew something was not right- something that stopped me was the thought that how will I explain it to others or come out in the open. Maybe I am overthinking and wrong about my feelings! Well, now I know the reason to all these questions. The system had trained me to come to consensus with the supremacy of male gender who considers women as objects meant to be fu**ed.

When was I immodest in my simple school tunic, or where did I go wrong when I used to follow the Catholic principles in my missionary school? But in the image of Father Amaro, I received an answer to the same as well. Why is there the need to depress the bodily desires and preach in the name of religion the things which you can’t follow. Humans, so petty they are! They lead sad, depressing and meaningless lives. All they need is a religion to back them up and fulfil the void in their lives. But thousands of wars are being fought under the name of same religion and not to mention countless women get grilled under the expectations that the system imposes on them. Who’s responsible for it? But, yet again if you have power and hold a reputable position in the society, no-one will question you. Rather the voices against you will be silenced at the hands of the mob itself who want to stay in their safe, comfortable cocoons around them. Similar thing was seen in the smile of Gomez in “The Secret in their Eyes” that in its entirety meant that he is untouchable. No matter who he rapes, no matter who he kills, he is the hitman of the right-wing conservatist party and is bound to walk free as he is indispensable to the system; The system that can silence anyone, crush voices and indulge in anything to protect itself and its “ideologies”.

The manner in which the glory of war is demystified and we are exposed to this grim reality of the war, something which physically and psychologically transforms you, is shocking. The idea that the movie Caterpillar and Invisible War highlights is something that stays out of the green light and is something which the system won’t let you talk about. Lost in these wars are the futures of countless children who have witnessed it in their surroundings, suffered losses of their near and dear ones and felt pain which is unexplainable for them. But more than this what I am worried of is the loss of Innocence. At small ages they have seen things which shall scar them for years to come. The character of Chava in “Innocent Voices” brings it in light how these children constantly live in fear of death and even are hesitant to openly discuss on the idea of birthdays as that brings them closer to the D-day, when their childhood officially ends. In Baran as well, the same issue is highlighted as the plight of Afghans who live in Iran as refugees is pictured out. Feelings such as first love, innocent emotions- all get eroded under the idea of things that are beyond their control and they can’t even understand them. The mere thought gives me chills down the spine if today in my cosy surroundings I think of the continuous terror under which the children in Kashmir are living. How difficult life has become for them under the whims and fancies of a selected few who are staying true to their beliefs and justifying their actions throughout in the name of Nationalism.

It’s a common saying that “All is Well that Ends well”. As I end this piece, I don’t want to be true to the system and the common beliefs where everything is rosy and turns all fine. Rather I wish to confront myself and accept that there are insurmountable pains that lie under the lies that are spoken and preached. There’s a propaganda that is followed by those who are in power and its they who decide the rules to play their game. Amidst all this, An Affair of Love gives me hope. A woman putting out an idea of string-less and pornographic affair was more than a bold step. It challenged the beliefs where identity has to be put on such women & an affair of gossip for all those witnessing it. It was erotic and had its charm at the same time. Similarly, the tale of Yossi and Jagger was moving in the sense that their love was pure and Yossi articulated it as Jagger “died in his arms”, a phrase and scene which is defines tragedy in an ideal girl-boy movie story. It was heart-breaking and sad to find Yossi lamenting his loss as in the funeral he sings Jagger’s favourite song. Last but not the least, the character of Nora in “The Divine Order” stands for women’s liberation and freedom as she fights her way against the social norm to make a place for herself in the society. The day all these emotions shall be respected, and unheard voices given an ear, can we expect an uprising against the system.

[ourafnakhlove-blog]

CHILD ABUSE

           When you find a child telling you that she/he is not okay, how would you react? What would you do? What if it happened to you too and you weren’t aware of it? What if you heard something like that before? What if you were a part of it?

           Child abuse is a situation where the guardian causes harm to the child through various forms. May it be physically or mentally or sexually or being neglecting them unintentionally or not being affordable enough for their kids. Child maltreatment can also be called as child abuse where the child is not provided with the required foods for nutrients to survive. A child might not be knowing that she/he is a victim of child abuse.

Across 40 million children are subjected to child abuse each year. Approximately 5-6 children die everyday because of child abuse. Around 68% of child abuse victims are abused by their own family members. 90% of the child sexual abuse victims know perpetrator somehow. In 2012, 82.2% of child abuse perpetrators were found to be between the ages of 18-44, of which 39.6% were recorded to be between the ages of 25-34. More than 4 children die from child abuse and neglect on daily basis in United States. Almost 70% of them below 3 years. 14% of all men and 36% of all women in prison were abused as children. Around 80% of child maltreatment fatalities involve at least one parent as perpetrator. More than 70% of the children who died as a result of child abuse or neglect were two years of age or younger. More than 80% were not yet old enough for kindergarten. Approximately 20% women and 5-10% men are sexually abused as children while 20-25% were physically abused. Stats indicate that about 3 million young girls are subjected to genital mutilation every year. In every 10 seconds a child is abused or raped. Abuse victims are at least 48% men and 52% women. About 80% of these children being abused meet the criteria for at least one psychological disorder as adults. Estimated 60% of the child deaths caused by child abuse are not recorded as such on death certificates.

There are various kinds of child abuse. Physical, mental, emotional abuse, sexual abuse etc. Sexual abuse being the most common one among all. About 47% of children are getting sexually abused.  About 20.7% adults report being sexually abused as a child. Approximately 15% to 25% of women and 5% to 15% of men were sexually abused when they were children. Most sexual abuse offenders are acquainted with their victims; approximately 30% are relatives of the child, most often brothers, sisters, fathers, mothers, uncles or cousins; around 60% are other acquaintances such as friends of the family, babysitters, or neighbours; strangers are the offenders in approximately 10% of child sexual abuse cases. In over one-third of cases, the perpetrator is also a minor. Accidental injury to a child by the parent or the care taker is termed as physical abuse. Neglecting the child is also one kind of abuse. It could be physical neglect, emotional neglect, medical, educational neglect, abandonment etc. Not providing the child with proper food, clothing, shelter can also result in the child being abused which may further result in psychological abuse as they grow up having all those incidents in their minds. Psychological abuse is as much harmful as physical or sexual abuse.

           There are many ways to treat a child abuse victim. However, children who experience childhood trauma do not heal from abuse easily. Parenting training can prevent child abuse in the short term, and help children with a range of emotional, conduct and behavioural challenges, but there is insufficient evidence about whether it treat parents who already abuse their children. Parent–child interaction therapy was designed to improve the child-parent relationship following the experience of domestic violence. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), estimates of the rates of child maltreatment vary widely by country, depending on how child maltreatment is defined, the type of maltreatment studied, the scope and quality of data gathered, and the scope and quality of surveys that ask for self-reports from victims, parents, and caregivers. Despite these limitations, international studies show that a quarter of all adults’ report experiencing physical abuse as children, and that 1 in 5 women and 1 in 13 men report experiencing childhood sexual abuse. Emotional abuse and neglect are also common childhood experiences. A child is the future and should be protected from getting abused at any cost and is mainly the responsibility of us to not get that unnoticed.

 References: Wikipedia, ChildHealth.

Author: Afreen Akhtar (Intern at Prayaas Corps)

About Author: A student persuading engineering. Interested in current affairs and issues. Taking up writing as a hobby.

Prayaas Corps Introduction: A place of doing good and spreading happiness. It is not just an NGO, it’s a better society to live in. It works along volunteers on various levels for the betterment of the society. A society where children are given their rights and various other things. It provides education to underprivileged children along with other interesting co-curriculum activities. Small efforts can make a bigger difference, just as the name itself suggests PRAYAAS – try/an effort to make a difference.

[newestbalance]

Supreme Court turns away

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday refused to hear a Wisconsin man’s challenge to his conviction in a 2005 murder in which he contends police coerced him into a confession in a case featured in a Netflix documentary series called “Making a Murderer.”

The justices turned away Brendan Dassey’s appeal of a lower court ruling upholding his conviction for murder, sexual assault and mutilation of a corpse in connection with the 2005 death of a freelance photographer named Teresa Halbach.

Dassey, 16 years old at the time of the murder and now 28, told police officers who interrogated him four times in 48 hours that he had helped his uncle, Steven Avery, rape and kill Halbach. Dassey’s lawyers have said he has “significant intellectual and social limitations” and was coerced into confessing in violation of his constitutional rights.

Reporting by Lawrence Hurley; Editing by Will Dunham

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