Bella Blog #1

(Originally posted in temporary storage bin on March 12 2015)

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/04/world/asia/delhi-gang-rape-mukesh-singh.html

For my first blog post I decided to talk about the recent article in The New York Times titled “Man Convicted of Rape in Delhi Blames Victim” because it has really had me thinking about it over the past few weeks. As I’m going to New Delhi for spring break, I have been reading a lot about this case and the culture of India after seeing this article come up in the news. This article is about the case of a young woman who was gang-raped and then killed on a bus in Delhi by six men. And there is so much that is horrific about their reactions. One man spoke out during an interview saying that it was in fact the young woman’s fault as no honorable woman goes out at that hour. Let it known that it happened around 9pm. The woman hadn’t even gone alone, but the young man she was with was beat when we tried to interfere. What I find so horrible is their responses—to them this is not a big deal. The bus driver never stopped the bus. None of the men feel remorse. And one even went on in his interview to say that “about 20 percent of women are good” (New York Times). This is shocking, horrible, completely unjust and disgusting. It made me think about Coach’s Buzzfeed article and how the culture of rape in the United States and how rape is now discussed on platforms such as YikYak. Compared to the past, this is a big jump. And now, when I think about this compared to the culture of rape in India, it just seems so alarming to me—for there is such a large spectrum in-between the two. I wish it wasn’t this way, I wish it never happened, but there’s something to be said about these two cultures and how each nation sees rape today.