SOME October headlines may have flitted past without drawing your attention. The month started with accusations that a prime minister in Europe groped a woman at lunch 20 years ago by running his hand up her thigh and squeezing it. A week later, allegations surfaced that one president in the American continent sexually harassed women in scores of cases stretching over many years.
On Oct 3, a South Korean man confessed to having committed nine rape-murders. Days later, a pornography addict in Australia was convicted of having abducted a child from a department store and raping her. On Oct 12, a rape victim in South Africa walked 27km for 27 days to mark 27 years since the day of her assault to give hope to other victims.
The beast with two horns roams all five continents. One horn is testosterone and the other is dopamine. Testosterone is a sex hormone that also fuels aggression, and a man has 10 to 100 times more of it than a woman. Dopamine stimulates the craving for pleasure. Some men develop a fix on dopamine as it gives them a “high” and when dopamine is mixed with elevated testosterone levels, these men can turn into predators.
The Buddha 2,500 years ago made a sharp observation about men. In the Auguttara-Nikaya scripture, he said: “I know of no other single form by which a man’s heart is so enslaved as it is by that of a woman. A woman’s form obsesses a man’s heart. I know of no other single scent, savour, and touch by which a man’s heart is so enslaved as it is by the scent, savour, and touch of a woman. The scent, savour, and touch of a woman obsess a man’s heart”.
So the Buddha strongly advised men to guard their senses. As for women of his time, they were shepherded by their fathers before marriage, then guarded by their husbands, and finally protected by their sons in old age. Predators usually couldn’t get near.
The freedom that women gained for themselves since the 1920s was the second biggest advance for humanity since slavery was abolished. But this freedom also gave predators more opportunities emerging from the display of scantily clad girls in advertising, entertainment, and event promotions.
Two dress-code incidents, also in October, highlight the prevalent disregard of basic safety rules. A K-pop star doing a live stream on social media exposed her right nipple inadvertently. A Taiwanese visitor in the Philippines wore a microkini or string bikini that police said barely covered her private parts. Risk comes from the sexually deviant intentions of just 0.5% of adult males. In a city of one million, this 0.5% deviation amounts to 1,000 predators on the loose.
Comedy scriptwriter Carla Lane, back in 1988, had cautioned that it was “a great risk for a girl to go out at night scantily clad”. Sandra James, Britain’s leading nurse 14 years ago, demanded that fashion retailers stop the “creeping sexualisation of very young girls” as it sent a terribly wrong message.
Nine years ago, writer Jacqueline Pereira warned that if the “blatant sexualisation of women” was not stopped it would bring “long-term repercussions”. In 2009, educationist Ruth Liew lamented that girls as young as nine taking part in talent shows were made to wear mini-skirts and thin spaghetti-strap tops “to make them attractive to the audience”.
Some years ago in Jakarta, after the molestation of a mini-skirted girl in a public minivan, 50 women held up placards that said: “Don’t tell us how to dress. Tell them not to rape”. Activists habitually encourage young women to dress as they please because infant girls, old women, and heavily clothed women have also been raped.
This is seductively false logic. A predator weighs risk versus reward. Any female, whatever age or dress style, can be targeted if a low-risk opportunity presents itself. But just as a padlocked gate may deter a robber, so does safe attire deflect a predator’s attention away from your body. Keep in mind the Buddha’s warning about men’s obsession with the female form, and dress safely.
The writer champions interfaith harmony. Comments: letters@thesundaily.com
