Video Wednesday: Because Rape is NOT Always About Sex

I had come across this documentary some time back and I remember it making me sit up. I did the usual things we do when we find things we like online; I shared it on various networks and forgot about it soon after. Then while generally surfing yesterday I found it again, only this time I found it on the makers page.

Amrit Vatsa has an interesting blog that caught my eye. He tell stories but not just in words, he tell video stories of people in all of three minutes, well mostly 3 minutes. :) He has quite a collection of 3 minute stories and you should definitely check them out. But this post isn't about that.

This post is about a story he told a while back, a story about how rape is not always about sex. Shreena and Ria have a powerful message to spread, and it is one I really like as it is about equality in it's true sense. Every time women seem to fight for equality, we are trying to get what men already have, or do what men are already allowed.

As an idea that has disturbed me for a long time. I don't want to constantly strive to be a man or even better than a man. I just want to be. I want to do what I want to do; not because I have to prove a point but because it make me happy. I don't want to be a tom-boy coz I'm I am boyish. I don't want to ride bikes because men do it, or travel alone because men can do it. I want to do all I do because I simply want to. This applies to even such mundane things as cooking and cleaning!

It's a slightly convoluted idea but there in for me lies equality. As a child my parents never told me I couldn't do something because I was a girl. I was allowed to do everything my brother did and more but it wasn't as competition of girl vs boy. There were things I was told that I was not allowed but never because I was a girl. Well, so I remember it, or maybe it was just me fighting to be me and not be labeled a girl.

So why am I sharing this video, well, because I want to push Shreena's and Ria's idea, I want equality for boys and girls, men and women. I'd like a world where we can just be who we are without having to fit into molds, or live up to norms of how we should be. I want to remove the definitions of man and woman and what each is allowed and not allowed. I want to see men cry openly without shame and women scratch their crotch in public without getting scorned. :D

http://vimeo.com/102474256

If the above video does not show up for you, you can click and see it on Amrit Vatsa's Vimeo channel.

Shreena Thakore, Ria Vaidya, and Rishabh Singh run the campaign No Country For Women with the intention "to change the problematic attitude of a country toward half of its population". They are fighting for gender equality and the removal of gender-based policing, violence and discrimination. Their work involves a lot of workshops across schools and colleges, distribution of written and audio-visual material online, and implementing effective long-term solutions. Check out their website if you would like to invite them to your school or college, have a discussion or just donate towards their idea.

What kind of a world do you want? What is your definition of equality? What did you think of the video?