Latest news on rape: still a major concern, still very real.
The Ministry of Public Health disclosed that there were 31,866 reported cases in Thailand last year, an average of 87 per day.
The news reports on these findings received great attention. Here at Life, we discussed what and how to report about rape. What is new? What hasn’t been said? Are there any new developments? New activist movements? Feminist movements? How is the One-Stop Crisis Centre faring? Whatever happened with the rape episode of the hit TV series Samee Tee Tra?
But why is it that we need new statistics or a specific incident to boost our concerns about sexual violence when it is a constant and pervasive issue? What is it about the way we experience and consume information? What does it take to shock us out of complacency?
A victim every 15 minutes, claim the findings of the Thai Ministry of Public Health. That’s staggering. For comparison, according to Rape Crisis, a UK-based feminist organisation promoting the needs of women and girls who have experienced sexual violence, approximately 85,000 women are raped in England and Wales each year.
The number doesn’t entirely reflect the reality of the situation. It is no secret that in Thailand the effects of stigmatisation prevent many victims from coming forward and reporting rape. Evidence underscores not only the inefficiency of bureaucratic handling of reported cases, but more importantly the way rape is often trivialised and how victim-blaming is prevalent in our society.
The term “rape culture” originated in the 70s in the US through efforts by feminists to raise awareness about the reality of rape, of the objectification of woman, of victim-blaming and slut-shaming — blaming victims for not wearing the right clothes, not behaving the right way, being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
In Thailand, the nature to question the victim is a huge issue, bureaucratically and in everyday conversations. If a person takes a cab home late at night — sure, maybe she’s a little tipsy — and gets raped (or even mugged for that matter), would you hold her responsible? Would you blame someone for getting hit by a bus? The awful reality is there are places that are “dangerous” and should be avoided, but to insinuate that a rape victim has any responsibility in her own assault already begins to justify it in some way.
The conversations need to change from “don’t get raped” to “don’t rape”. This, I feel, is what needs to be discussed, what deserves great attention, but what will not make headline news. It is as if we have taken rape as a normal occurrence, something unavoidable. Just imagine how much of a fuss everyone would make if a car was being stolen every 15 minutes.
It is easy for myths to be perpetuated about when or where rape happens. It’s not always in a dark alley, in the back of a taxi. In many rape cases, the victims know the aggressors — they might even have a close relationship with them. But in every case no one asks for it.
The common immediate response to question the victim absolves rapists of accountability. The statistics disclose the number of reported cases, not how many rapists were actually held accountable or convicted. I’m sure the number is extremely minuscule.
The fact that many rapists can get away with committing such horror, while victims are afraid of speaking out, reflects a tolerance of rape in our culture.
With regards to rape, there are countless concerns to talk about and address, from female objectification and male privilege to power dynamics between genders and social classes. From what constitutes consent, what constitutes rape, to what actions perpetuate “rape culture” — what is victim-blaming and what can be considered rape apology. Rape is rape and no means no.
There have been recent debates in the US about the accuracy of the term “rape culture”, whether it is alarmist or useful. The notion that rape is a cultural norm is almost unthinkable. Still if it were to be inaccurate, the hyperbole serves as an effective and important point to raise awareness, for us begin to understand and address why rape is so pervasive in our culture, to work towards eliminating — or at least reducing — it.
Plmrapee Thungkasemvathana is a writer for Life section.