Did you know, there are species of insects where the females, after mating, kill and consume the males? I’m pretty sure it is already a well-known fact… Some spiders, praying mantis… In other species, the males need to put up a show of strength or beauty, Competing with another male to win the female over. Think about it…
Now imagine this scene.
It’s well past midnight. A woman packs up her laptop. It’s been a long hard day at work for her. She sets out from the office building. She knows that she won’t get a bus now and she’ll have to walk a little to get to the taxi stand. She sets off at a brisk pace. The street is empty… As she turns a corner she sees a bunch of boys loitering around. They look nasty. She clutches her bag a little tighter… She thinks if se just quietly walks on, they won’t heed her.. But her heels clicking on the hard concrete attracts their attention. They start catcalling.. She ignores them, hoping she can just get to the cabs, she’ll be ok… She keeps walking… But because she ignores them, the youth get louder.. As she crosses them, they start following her… She walks faster.. The calls get louder, meaner… Cruder… And then she feels her bag jerking.. She doesn’t even look back, let’s go of the bag with no thought other than her safety and breaks into a run… Her heels however make her stumble and she falls and like blood thirsty hyenas, the creeps close in on her prone figure…. And like a soul being dragged into hell, she is sucked in by them even as the night is stained with her screams….
Horrid? Now think of this one…
The little girl watches as her mother gets ready for work. She picks up her handbag then takes the little girl’s hand and tells her that she was not to trouble anyone and be a good girl. On her way out, the mother leaves the little girl at the neighbors. The Aunty isn’t home but uncle says he’ll take care of the little child. Smiling, the mother let’s go of the little one’s hand, one eye on the watch ticking on her wrist… As the mother leaves, the uncle smiles at the girl. He says, do you want to play? And he lifts her up… And promising her a good time, he walks into the room… For years after that day, the mother is still haunted by that moment when she let her little girl’s hand go…
They make me cry, these story. Every morning, I open the news paper and there they are… They make me cry… And I cry when I am angry. So angry that I want to find these men and cause them so much pain that they’d beg for death. I want them to suffer so much, they’d never imagined they could go through so much pain. I want them to feel what that young woman felt… What that little girl felt… And what the thousands of other women feel when they fall prey to.. To the monsters like them! Even as I write this, I am torn by this gut twisting urge to maul someone like that! And trust me, I am capable of mauling!
And then I think of that mantis who kills and consumes the male after the deed is done. The males know that they are walking to their death when they decide to mate. And I wonder if men too would think of raping as easily as they do if they knew that they were walking to their end? Obviously, the insect world lives on a whole different instinct level; procreating, serving their purpose and then perishing. But I wonder… If women, by instinct, start killing the men who have sex with them, will we still have rape? If the female evolves over a period of time to grow vaginal pincers that chop off a man’s penis after intercourse, would a man still want to rape?
No? Then maybe we’ll grow those pincers. And acid spit glands. Don’t we refer to the rapists as predators? Well all animals develop self-defence mechanisms. Odor sprays or scary patterns or venom. I think we’ll grow acid spit glands. Pepper sprays in our mouths.Get too smart and you get sprayed! Avoid that and try to still rape me? Get your balls cut off with the pincers!
I think women will evolve. I think with the rate at which we need to defend ourselves, the rate at which we are falling prey, nature will give us a leg up. It will give us those acid glands and those pincers….
Now think of this scene…
It’s well past midnight. A woman packs up her laptop. It’s been a long hard day at work for her. She sets out from the office building. She knows that she won’t get a bus now and she’ll have to walk a little to get to the taxi stand. She sets off at a brisk pace. The street is empty… As she turns a corner she sees a bunch of boys loitering around. They look nasty. She thinks, ‘not tonight…’ She thinks if she just quietly walks on, they won’t heed her.. But her heels clicking on the hard concrete attracts their attention. They start catcalling.. She ignores them, hoping she can just get to the cabs, nothing needs to happen… She keeps walking… But because she ignores them, the youth get louder.. As she crosses them, they start following her… She closes her eyes and prays, ‘not tonight.. Please not tonight…’ The calls get louder, meaner… Cruder… And then she feels her bag jerking… She stops… Closes her eyes… Takes a deep breath… And as she feels a hand grabbing her, she swiftly turns around and opens her mouth… And then, the jeering voices morph into screams of pain and horror… They begin stumbling backwards blindly, trying to put as much distance between themselves and her… She advances upon their prone figures, her mouth still wide open, the acid spraying in spurts… They scramble backwards, writhing in agony, trying to brush the stinging liquid off of themselves as it sears holes into their clothes and skin… She takes one look at the scarred men… Then turns and walks away… The night air ringing with the cries of the vanquished predators…
I like this scene better… What do you think?