Is life getting too tough for men or are men getting too soft for life? Apart from the obvious turns in their fortunes, with the #MeToo movement and the very definition of ‘masculine’ undergoing its own evolution, age-old systems where men ruled unquestioningly are losing muscle. Men are coping the best they can, trying to hold on to shattering marriages and the worldview as they knew it, but they have to admit, however unwilling they may be, that they are now part of a larger revolution.
The sentencing of American actor Danny Masterson goes beyond the drama of a headline. It sounds like the body count of each man falling, paying the price for arrogance. One of the stars of That ’70s Show, Masterson represents Hollywood clout. His victims, the women he raped, could only file complaints, unsure of the support they could garner. The system is rigged, that is the general consensus. In any powerful structure built on male supremacy, a man like Masterson will get away scot-free each time, that’s a given.
The case went on for a long time, and now finally, at age 47, he has been sentenced to 30 years in prison for two rapes. Said one victim: “When you raped me, you stole from me. That’s what rape is, a theft of the spirit.” The other victim said, “I knew he belonged behind bars for the safety of all the women he came into contact with.”
How men treated women to a large extent was the culmination of how men were treated by the world. Holding invisible reins, they were able to perpetuate a kind of self-serving justice, where honour killing and female infanticide were casual sub-systems within the larger shell. They paid the price too, but in ways that left women unsympathetic. As of 2015, two-thirds of world suicides were by men, with suicide the biggest cause of death in men under 50, anyway. According to the National Crime Records Bureau, in India, 56.51 per cent of male students died by suicide compared to 43.49 per cent of girls in 2021. As per the health ministry, 71 per cent of men account for India’s high suicide rate. Power games are never a win-win situation.
The sexual assault allegations against Bill Cosby and Harvey Weinstein emphasise the emerging new world order. Rape itself has moved from the ‘he said, she said’ terrain into men having to prove it never happened. This shift of onus and blame and body of proof away from women has been a turning point not only within gender politics but also for the sheer crime rate.
Boy-girl equality may still be a pipedream, but a mutiny has been set in motion. Every conviction that puts a criminal behind bars, especially where a woman has been believed, is an uprising.
Shinie Antony
Author
shinieantony@gmail.com