Sanyogita Sharma
“Sexual intimacy is not the destination; it is the path – the path that leads to mental union.” ― Abhijit Naskar
Society as defined by Cambridge dictionary is “an enormous gathering of individuals who live respectively in a coordinated manner, settling on choices about how to get things done and sharing the work that should be finished. All individuals in a country, or in a few comparative nations, establish a general public or society.”
In actual sense or general sense society is a collection of people who govern the thinking and working of a common household in India, every work is done in these households keeping in mind what the society will say or what according to society is right, from the birth of the child to birth of his child and even his death everything is governed by the rules of society. The institution of marriage is governed by societies.
Even the sexual intimacy which is a private matter between two individuals is also not spared from the interference of the society. Sexual intimacy is something which a person engages in willfully but the society has major role to play in pushing married couples into the act of sexual intimacy which is again encouraged by the in laws of individuals because of societal pressure in the dire need of producing offspring which is must after marriage preferably within a year of marriage according to society and if a woman fails to follow these norms of society she is called names, questioned and what not in front of the whole society which forces her to engage into sexual intimacy regardless of the fact that she is ready or not.
If a couple has been married for more than 2 years and still had no child than they are seen as some sort of criminals and questioned everywhere about when are they planning on having a baby or is everything alright between two of them as couple or if the wife is sterile and are suggested a thousand of ways (most of which included jaadu tona{black magic} or some baba) and are indirectly forced to try for the baby i.e. engaging in sexual activity without their free will.
The society is male dominant and to prove his dominance he engages into sexual intimacy without the will and consent of the woman which results in the offence of marital rape which again is not a crime according to laws. In one of the articles of Indian Law Journal marital rape is defined as “undesirable intercourse by a man with his significant other acquired forcibly, danger of power, or actual brutality, or when she can’t give assent.
Conjugal assault could be by the utilization of power just, a battering assault or a twisted/over the top assault. It is a non-consensual demonstration of fierce corruption by a spouse against the wife where she is genuinely and explicitly manhandled.” The UN Population Fund expresses that “more than 2/3rds of wedded ladies in India, matured between 15 to 49 have been beaten, assaulted or compelled to give sex. In 2005, 6787 cases were recorded of ladies killed by their spouses or their husbands’ families. 56% of Indian ladies accepted periodic spouse beating to be supported.”
The conjugal assault exception can be followed to explanations by Sir Mathew Hale, Chief Justice in England, during the 1600s. He expressed, “The spouse can’t be liable of an assault submitted without anyone else upon his legal wife, for by their shared wedding assent and agreement, the wife hath given herself in kind unto the husband, whom she can’t withdraw.” a similar diary expresses that” in the current day, contemplates show that somewhere in the range of 10 and 14% of wedded ladies are assaulted by their husbands: the occurrences of conjugal assault take off to 1/third to ½ among clinical examples of battered ladies. Rape by one’s companion represents roughly 25% of assaults submitted. Ladies who became ideal objectives for conjugal assault are the individuals who endeavour to escape. It is a cognizant interaction of terrorizing and attestation of the prevalence of men over ladies”.
“Young girls are like helpless children in the hands of amorous men, whatever is said to them is true and whatever manipulation on their bodies seems like love to them, sooner or later, they come back to their senses, but the scars are not dead inasmuch as her spoiler lives.” ― Michael Bassey Johnson, Scars Of Beauty
According to the society “The wife’s role has traditionally been understood as submissive, docile and that of a homemaker. Sex has been treated as obligatory in a marriage and also taboo.” If a women wants to discuss these issues with her mother or mother in law she can’t and if she does she is told to suck it up and tolerate whatever is happening to her because it is bound to happen and it is what has always happened and will keep happening and this is how the society works.
Third gender apart from female and male is not even considered in society the people belonging to third gender are considered as mentally ill and the way to remove the illness is getting them married to opposite gender whether they are ready or not and are forced to engage in sexual intimacy with their partners by the society resulting in undesired life for two individuals who get bound by the ties of marriage due to society.
Therefore it won’t be wrong to say that the society actually does push individuals for sexual intimacy against their will.
References
- https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/sexual-intercourse
- https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/society
- https://www.indialawjournal.org/archives/volume2/issue_2/article_by_priyanka.html
