From: baindur@jhunix.hcf.jhu.edu (Satyen G Baindur)
Subject: Re: More About India/ Whither Patriotism
Organization: HAC - Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore
Date: Wed, 14 Oct 1992 14:05:17 GMT


In article <susanc.719011281@keckiris> susanc@rice.edu (susan chacko) writes:
>
>Phew. That's a relief. If it's just that American men don't find us
>attractive, then we don't have to worry about the harassment levels
>ever increasing...that is, until the number of Indian male immigrants
>reach a critical mass... (he said it, not me :-))
>Given this theory, it's interesting that the non-Indian women who've 
>visited India seem to be so surprised at the level of harassment they
>faced. 
>And it's also interesting to note the number of posters who're more
>interested in finding reasons for the relative absence of harassment
>in the US than its ubiquity in India.
>
>Susan.

Sorry, Susan, I disagree with both premises ! While I don't want to minimize
the extent of sexual harrasment in India, I do object to its characterization 
as 'ubiquitous'.
But more than that, I am upset that anyone would see it as being relatively
absent in the US. I believe that is downright dangerous. I am glad 
that none of the women who have responded to this thread have experienced
harrasment here, at least of the form that they have in India - but that 
doesn't mean it does not occur.

I suggest that many of these women have simply never been in situations 
where such harrasment occurs, although college campuses are a major 
site for such occurences. Yes, women in the US also experience unwelcome 
attention, in a manner that makes them uncomfortable - it does happen -
everything from verbal harrassment, to acquaintance rape and date rape - 
including offensive graffiti, strangers following and becoming obsessed 
with them, having their anatomy commented upon in public, and on and on. 
One only needs to keep up with the media to be aware of these facts, 
but there is also a large body of anecdotal evidence from friends and 
acquaintances.

Nonconsensual groping also does occur - and recently Washington DC area 
high schools had to institute severe punishments for violators after 
many years of complaints by parents of the young women attending them. 
This has also been a major complaint by women attending the so-called 
frat parties at college campuses. Never mind, of course, what went on 
in the so-called Tailhook scandal, which is probably too egregious, 
although it has been suggested that it is part of a common and recurring 
pattern of behavior. 

I just want to suggest that adolescent or post-adolescent males of a 
certain class and upbringing - will behave in  a certain way - especially 
when sexually denied or frustrated - and most especially when inebriated or 
intoxicated, and this is not very different whether it occurs in India 
or the US.

If all was so well in the US, ask yourself why the most common fear among 
US women is that of entering an elevator alone with a male stranger. 

The other variables in this equation are race and class - does the 
harassment ( and much worse) suffered by women of  African descent 
in this country really have to be detailed ? And what about the 
harrasment that many poor women suffer every day ? Sociological issues 
of any import are rarely one-dimensional. I'm really surprised that 
in a year that in American politics is being called the 'Year of the 
Woman' - especially in the wake of the Clarence Thomas hearings last 
year- where the issue was the sexual harrasment allegedly perpetrated 
by the head of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission - the very 
federal body charged with enforcement of the laws against sexual harrasment- 
when college campuses are experiencing what is considered an epidemic 
of 'date rapes', amongst many other indices of rising sexual harrasment, 
that anybody would say that sexual harrasment was relatively  absent 
in the US ! 

-- Satyen
Newsgroups: soc.culture.indian