"A huge misconception is that typical reactions to sexual assault are to fight back with all might or to flee away as if in a marathon. Apart from these popular fight-or-flight response to danger, the brain’s defense circuitry induces freezing up which is a documented neuro-biological condition rendering the victim immobile."
SWARNA LATHA. R
‘Sexual violence against women’ – the very term seems problematic in it’s passive construction as it shifts the focus off men and onto women, making the crimes victim-centric. This leads to a misinterpretation where a punishable offence is presumed as a mere mishappening as if there is no active agent causing it. At the outset, rape, sexual assault or any form of sexual/ physical violence are gendered crimes, more often targeted against women by men, creating a concavity on their dignity, bodily integrity, sexual integrity and reproductive choice. Assaults are never the mere result of fair skin-tone, tender age, attractive body, provoking outfits or a romantic relationship shared but it is the frailty and vulnerability of the victim that empowers the perpetrator. Do strangers in dark-alleys alone pose threat to the dignity and safety of women? No, the increasing rate of acquaintance rapes, date rapes and abuse of dominant position suggest the unsolicited predatory behavior of men against vulnerable women. Then who is to be blamed?
NO FAULT LIABILITY
Rape cultures, rooted on patriarchy and male chauvinism, accuse survivors and allow impunity to the assailants. Such victim-blaming environment imposes self-responsibility burden on a survivor over-shadowing the guilt of the accused while a victim merely falls prey to the conscious decision of the perpetrator to indulge in sexual assault/ violence. This stereotypical outlook does in no way inhibit violence against women but constraints their liberty and limits their opportunities for no fault of their own. Several unfounded myths and prejudices revolving around rape and sexual assault neglect the fact that rape is never deserved, a sexual assault is never asked for and any unwelcome sexual advance is never the fault of the victim.
If she hung around with the accused, it means that she was willing to have sexual intercourse. If she stayed up with him in private space, it means she invited him for a sleep-over. If she was silent to his sexual advances, it means she was welcoming it. If she did not scream or yell for help, it means that she wanted more of it. If there was no skin- to-skin contact or touching of private parts, then it was never a sexual assault. If there were no brutal physical injuries, then it was not really a sexual assault at all. If she did not want it, then why did not she fight back? If she really wanted to stop him, why did not she resist him? Such questions slap culpability on the face of the survivor which is tantamount to victim-blaming and the society is too quick to misjudge a brutal assault for a consensual sex affair or a peaceful sleep-over.
FIGHTING BACK – NOT THE LITMUS TEST:
While confrontational behavior is often idealized as the natural response to any sexual/physical violence, the hiatus between what we think we should or we would and what is done at the moment while encountering a sexual assault is sweeping and antithetical. Freezing and significant tonic immobility during a sexual assault is a common response amongst survivors[1] which impair their resistance against the assailant. Such survivors report severe coldness, inability to move or shout, involuntary closure of the eyes, temporary paralysis, tremors and increased breathing during the assault. Frozen victims don’t react strongly as their body goes rigid and out of control as they get scared in a visceral way.
However, this does not imply that survivors ought to have or could have resisted and essentially fought back, if they did not freeze. Especially, victimized children and adult virgins who are totally alien to this unprecedented domain, freeze out of shock and helplessness. Little do they know how to decipher implicit romantic/ sexual overtures from casual bodily touches or how to encounter over-powering and incapacitating behavior in such explicit acts. Innocence and lack of understanding of sexual innuendos or unwanted sexual attention from the opposite gender poses the most dangerous threat to their safety. Not in every case, sexual desire/ romantic interest is a pre-requisite, rather a physical abuse can be motivated by hostility, power and dominance over the victim’s vulnerability on account of their poor physic, unconsciousness, sleep, intoxication or obedience.
FREEZING IS AN INSTINCT; NOT CONSENT
Freeze/ appease response is an instinctive physiological reaction stimulated by high stress hormones; not a choice or a consciously crafted strategy. The "freeze" response is a neurobiological, unconscious response caused by chemicals in the brain region responsible for decision making and fear processing[2]. A huge misconception is that typical reactions to sexual assault are to fight back with all might or to flee away as if in a marathon. Apart from these popular fight-or-flight response to danger, the brain’s defense circuitry induces freezing up which is a documented neuro-biological condition rendering the victim immobile[3]. Some survivors feel paralyzed as their body limps or their voice shrink away. There are typically, three stages- detection freezing, behavioral inhibition and shocked freezing.[4] Freeze response is not just inaction or submission but a survival instinct deeply hard-wired in human brain. When there is little hope of fleeing, while fighting back is also too dangerous, freezing, submitting and co-operating becomes the best defense and hopes of survival. While playing dead may protect a prey from being consumed, unfortunately this tactic doesn’t deter a sex-predator or an assailant from releasing the victim.
ONLY AN ‘YES’ MEANS ‘YES’
A victim need not express an assertive “No” or yell to convey her dissent. Not saying ‘No’ or a feeble ‘No’ is not an indication of consent to play along or participate in an undesired sexual activity. However, the dead silence or passivity of the victim is often used as a ploy by the defense is a flawed interpretation of consent. Though the Courts have time and again reiterated that “No”, “I don’t know” or mere silence do not mean or imply consent, there are blurred lines around what is consensual and what is not. Consent to sexual activity is always non-negotiable. It has to be given enthusiastically, voluntarily and freely without coercion, undue influence or fraud.
Only an unequivocal and enthusiastic ‘Yes’ would mean consent whereas silence or passivity would imply only an assertive ‘No’ to such sexual assault. The Verma Committee Report rightly pointed out that the relationship between the victim and the offender is immaterial and focus should be solely on the presence of consent, in sexual assault cases[5]. For better interpretation of consent the difference between Consent and submission must be evaluated on the parameter of welcomeness of such an approach. ‘Consent’ for sexual act requires voluntary participation not only after the exercise of intelligence based on the knowledge of the significance and moral quality of the act[6] but after having fully exercised the choice between resistance and assent. If submission to any unwanted sexual activity is on the face of inevitable compulsion or fear or duress[7] or abuse of dominant position in a fiduciary relationship to seduce or induce a woman in custody, then consent ought to be determined on stricter terms.
POST-TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER/DISSOCIATION
Absence of physical scars as evidence of brutality does not trivialize the severity of a sexual assault which leaves psychological lesions and emotional trauma in the victim. The more they bottle up their emotions within themselves, the more frustrated they feel. Soon after the traumatic interlude, survivors experience intense thoughts, disturbing feelings, intrusive memories, self- pity and angst, guilt and shame, self-reproach and censure, extreme sadness and anxiety, mounting worries and indecisiveness, loss of appetite and insomnia due to frequent flashbacks and recurring nightmares of the same incident.[8]
This results in self-seclusion, dissociation, dejection, lack of enthusiasm and inability to concentrate, generalized loss of trust in people and difficulties in inter-personal relationships for a prolonged period which can be termed as post-traumatic stress disorder[9]. Dissociation curtails survivors and cripples them emotionally into a cocoon of self- blame, self-hatred and self-doubt. Suffering in silence without any external channel to reach out to them aggravates their misery and worsens their mental trauma so much so that they resort to self-harming and suicidal activities. As Maya Angelou says, there is no greater agony than bearing an untold story within oneself. Survivors struggle through an arduous battle on a daily basis before they dare to speak up, even to their closest circle, causing an inordinate delay in initiating the legal battle.
CULTURE OF OMERTA:
Clever acquaint assailants make foolish attempts to save their face and convince the survivors by camouflaging sexual assaults as humor or just as an outburst of overwhelming affection. In romantic date rapes, survivors love their partners despite the abuse and volunteer to compromise or try to hide the violent episode under the carpet and deal with their post-Traumatic stress. When the harasser happens to be the boss, superior or a socially influential man, the astounding patronage he receives from co-female workers to shut down the victim is alarming. Sometimes, survivors exhibit cognitive dissonance and observe silence of the lambs in continued abuse and inappropriateness by boorish bosses fearing hostile work environment and loss of job or reputation. The never-ending saga of young women being coerced to offer or women voluntarily offering sexual favors for professional upliftment or collaboration is a death-knell to women empowerment. Only a few dares to confront but in vain. The more the survivors precipitate the issue with the perpetrator, the more they are coerced and intimidated to bury the hatchet, exploiting their trepidation to be identified as survivors of sexual assault.
The silenced voices under the influence of psychosocial variables, patriarchal overtone, misogyny, slut-shaming and fear of social ostracization refuse to take the accused to task. The wheels of law and the mills of justice grind at it’s own slow pace that the survivors lack the mental stamina and economic support to withstand until justice is seasoned. Most of the sexual harassment cases go unreported[10], unprobed if reported, unheard if probed, unpunished even if heard for want of incriminating evidences. Ironically, some cases are compromised and settled out of Courts absolving the accused of his culpable offences. Further, true complaints are underplayed pegged to the misconception that only gold-diggers and liars make spurious allegations against innocent men driven by personal vengeance. However, this argument does not hold good in the light of conservative cultural ethos and pseudo ethics standards for women in the Indian society. Victims refrain from reporting sexual harassment or physical abuse in fear of being judged and abandoned by family, humiliated by friends and shunned by relatives which would also ruin her prospects for marriage if she is a spinster.
NAME AND SHAME:
It is highly disheartening that even well-educated and modern women dread character assassination and miserably fall to the mysterious silence that follows the sexual assault. Gratuitously, survivors are blamed and shamed instead of castigating the rapists, assailants and harassers. This narrow-mindedness stems from the objectification of women, glamorization of sexual violence and the very thought that women are sex-commodities and pleasure-givers who must dance to the whims and fancies of men. As long as the society does not stop its censure on the survivors as to why she didn’t slap him and slam her door right away to his unsolicited advances or why she didn’t resist and create a ruckus while she was subjected to the assault or why she didn’t report the crimes as early as possible, suffering in silence is the only panacea left.
It is due season that the survivors dare to speak up and the society stands for them without muting their voices by slathering them with ‘could haves’ and ‘would haves’. Survivors ought to break themselves free from the shackles of social stigma to stage the offence and strive for justice. Being mute spectators of an offence is a dangerous silence making us a part of the offence, in itself. A story of assault is never a disgrace; it may be someone’s caution or someone’s inspiration and each time a woman stands up for herself, she stands up for the women community and the entire humanity. Let’s recall what Martin Luther King dictates, “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about the things that matter.” However, it’s easier said than done.
(The author, SWARNA LATHA. R is an advocate at Chennai.)
[1] Möller A, Söndergaard HP, Helström L. Tonic immobility during sexual assault - a common reaction predicting post-traumatic stress disorder and severe depression. Acta Obstet Gynecol Scand. 2017 Aug;96(8):932-938. doi: 10.1111/aogs.13174. Epub 2017 Jun 22. PMID: 28589545. [2] Jim Hopper, Important Things to Get Right About the “Neurobiology of Trauma”, EVAWI, September 2020,https://evawintl.org/wp-content/uploads/TB-Trauma-Informed-Combined-1-3.pdf [3] Namitha Kumar, ‘Why Many Rape Survivors ‘Freeze’ During Sexual Assault’, Medindia, July 22,2015, https://www.medindia.net/news/healthinfocus/why-many-rape-survivors-freeze-during-sexual-assault-151354-1.htm#:~:text=The%20%22freeze%22%20response%20is%20a,the%20victim%20into%20non-response, Last accessed on 08.02.2022. [4] Jim Hopper, ‘Freezing During Sexual Assault and Harassment’ Psychology Today, April 3, 2018, https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/sexual-assault-and-the-brain/201804/freezing-during-sexual-assault-and-harassment, last accessed on 08.02.2022 [5] https://prsindia.org/policy/report-summaries/justice-verma-committee-report-summary [6] Shyam Sivan v. State of Kerala,CRL.A NO. 986 OF 2019 [7] Thangappan v. State of Kerala, CRL.A. NO.564 OF 2018. [8]75% of sexual assault survivors have PTSD one month later, UW Medicine, July 20,2021, https://newsroom.uw.edu/news/75-sexual-assault-survivors-have-ptsd-one-month-later, last accessed on 08.02.2022 [9] Understanding PTSD in Sexual Assault Survivors, Methodist, June 26, 2020, https://bestcare.org/news/20200626/understanding-ptsd-sexual-assault-survivors last accessed on 08.02.2022 [10] The National Family Health Survey (NFHS) of 2015-16 showed no improvement as the data estimated 99.1 per cent of sexual assault cases going unreported.
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