The Allahabad High Court has pressed for a proper legal framework to deal with cases where the accused makes false promise of marriage only to satisfy his lust, and said that this certainly falls within the ambit of cheating and playing deception to obtain consent for sex. 

The single-judge bench of Justice Pradeep Kumar Srivastava said, “This feudal mind set and male ‘chauvinism’ that women are nothing but an object of enjoyment is required to be rigorously addressed and strictly dealt with in order to create a healthier society and to increase a sense of security and protection in the mind of women”.

The appellant, Harshvardhan Yadav, filed the appeal against the Sessions Court order rejecting his bail application. An FIR has been filed against him under section 376 (Punishment for sexual assault) of Indian Penal Code as well as under the Scheduled Castes and Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.

The appellant contended that although FIR was lodged, no sign of rape was found in medical examination and during the investigation the manager of the hotel stated that the appellant and the complainant had identified themselves as husband and wife, on the date of the alleged incident. The complainant is working as police constable in the UP Police. The appellant submitted that the case has been filed for blackmailing and forcing him into marriage. The counter affidavit filed by the State submits that the appellant had called her to the hotel to finalise marriage and in the hotel room committed rape on her.

The FIR states that on the date of incident, while she was going to Kanpur he called her in a Hotel to talk to her about documents with regards to court marriage. There he tried to have physical relationship with her, and on her resistance, forcibly committed rape on her. When she shouted, he humiliated and abused her by caste related words saying that she is of SC community, nobody will marry her nor she has status to marry him.

It has been contended by the appellant that both went to hotel and it was a consented sex on the part of the complainant as she was in love with the appellant. The counsel for the appellant relied upon case laws whereby the complainants have consented to have sexual intercourse on the promise that the accused would marry and the courts have refused to accept the plea of rape.

The question of consent

The court observed that the argument that in the medical, no sign of rape was found is meaningless in such kind of cases. the court also refused to accept the contention that it was an act for which the informant had given consent and there was no occasion for misconception of fact. The court pointed to the section 90 of IPC which states that if the consent has been given under fear of injury or a misconception of fact, such consent obtained, cannot be construed to be a valid consent. The court also pointed out section 114A of the Evidence Act which assumes absence of consent in cases of rape.

The court held that while considering the question of consent, the Court must consider the evidence before it and the surrounding circumstances before reaching a conclusion. The court, after perusing the material on record, observed that this was a single act of sex as previous incidents have not been mentioned by either party. “Nowhere, it has been said by the appellant that he is still willing to marry with the respondent no. 2. This shows that he was making false promise of marriage and on the pretense of preparation of document for court marriage, he called her in the hotel,” the court observed.

False promise of marriage

The court pointed out that false marriage promise is and always has been an effective tool of mischievous males for creating emotional pressure on a woman for having sex. “There is a clear distinction between rape and consensual sex and in a case like this it is apparent from the facts and circumstances that the accused had actually never wanted to marry the victim and had mala fide motives, and had made a false promise to marry only to satisfy his lust, and this certainly falls within the ambit of cheating and playing deception to obtain consent for sex,” the court held.

The court highlighted that rape is considered to be physically and morally reprehensible crime and sexual intercourse on the pretext of false promise to marry is, and ought to be an offence of rape under the penal provisions. The court observed that this is becoming a phenomenon that accused makes a false promise of marriage with the mala fide intention to deceive the victim. The court also identified that for women in our society promise of marriage is a great allurement and they are trapped in a situation which results in their sexual abuse and exploitation.

The court finds it necessary for the legislature to provide a clear and specific legal framework to deal with the cases where the accused obtained consent for sexual intercourse on the false promise of marriage.

How courts must handle such cases

The court stated that until such lacuna is filled, the court has to take into consideration the social reality and reality of human life and continue giving protection to such women.

“Unless there is prolonged relationship which raises a strong inference of consensual sex, in other cases, particularly, in cases of single act of sexual intercourse as is the case in the present case, or relationship for a short time, persuaded by false promise of marriage or where circumstances show that the accused never intended to fulfill the promise or he could not be able to fulfill the promise on account of factors such as the accused was already married, he disclosed wrong identity, name, religion and other details to play deception to obtain consent for sexual intercourse, or the like. Obtaining consent for sexual relationship by false promise of marriage should be termed as consent given under misconception of fact and must amount to rape,” the court held.

The court held that it cannot be a silent spectator and give license to those who are trying to exploit the innocent girls and have sexual intercourse with them on the pretext of a false promise of marriage. “This feudal mind set and male ‘chauvinism’ that women are nothing but an object of enjoyment is required to be rigorously addressed and strictly dealt with in order to create a healthier society and to increase a sense of security and protection in the mind of women,” the court said.

In conclusion, the court held that the facts and circumstances go to show that the appellant made a false promise of marriage to the victim and he never intended to fulfil the same and thus was not inclined to interfere with the Sessions court order ejecting his bail; the court said that the accused does not deserve the court’s sympathy and dismissed the appeal.

The complete order may be read here:

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Image Courtesy: Indiatimes

At a time when atrocities against same-sex couples have risen manifold, the pictures of Anjali Chakra and Sundas Malik, the Hindu-Muslim same-sex couple from India and Pakistan respectively, have ignited a ray of hope in our hearts. Not only that they’ve started a revolution – being two women lovers, Hindu-Muslim and from India-Pakistan.

The couple stay in New York and recently attended a Durga Puja ceremony with Anjali’s parents at their local community event. “We get to share so many of our traditions with each other”, Anjali had tweeted with a photoset of the pictures.

Love has no boundaries and yet, we hear of religion, caste and other social norms that get in the way of true love. Still, Anjali and Sundas have managed to shatter that notion. Celebrating one year of togetherness, the couple shared their pictures on a photo sharing app professing their desire “to grow together in each other’s love.”

The fairy tale like pictures have taken social media by storm and people have showered immense blessings that have been heartwarming for the couple who were overwhelmed with the positive responses to their pictures.

In an interview to Metro.co.uk, they said they felt good about young LGBTQIA girls, non-binary people and boys looking at their photos, feeling seen and not alone.

But it’s not been just a bed of roses for these two. Even though they’ve lived through their share of homophobic abuse and trolling, they maintain an optimistic attitude citing that people indulging in such behavior haven’t been exposed to LGBTQIA issues and don’t understand them well.

Acknowledging that many of their LGBTQIA siblings live through similar abuse without being heard, they thanked Twitter users who came out in their support and enabled them to talk about their relationship openly.

Recently, the world also celebrated the marriage of two male grooms, Amit Shah and Aditya Madiraju who had a traditional Hindu wedding.

Lawyers MenakaGuruswamy and ArundhatiKatju who fought tooth and nail against Section 377 of the IPC that criminalized gay sex between adults, also came out as a couple and have been showered with much love thereafter.

Meanwhile, in another part of the world, Uganda announced plans for a bill colloquially called “Kill the Gays” that would impose a death penalty on homosexuals, saying the legislation would curb a rise in unnatural sex in the east African nation. Under British colonial law, gay sex is punishable with up to life imprisonment and activists said the new bill risked unleashing attacks.

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In skin, muscle, fat and more tissues, genes behave differently in men and women. from www.shutterstock.com

Men have X and Y sex chromosomes, and women have two X chromosomes. We know that genes on these chromosomes may act differently in men and women.

But a recent paper claims that beyond just genes on X and Y, a full third of our genome is behaving very differently in men and women.

These new data pose challenges for science, medicine and maybe even gender equity.

The human genome

Men and women have practically the same set of about 20,000 genes. The only physical difference in their genetic make up is in the sex chromosomes. Only males have a Y chromosome. Although the X chromosome is present in both sexes, there are two copies in females and only one in males.

The human Y contains only 27 genes. One of these is the sex-determining region Y gene (SRY), which kick-starts the pathway that causes a ridge of cells in a 12 week-old embryo to develop into a testis.

Until recently, many believed that only the presence or absence of SRY distinguishes men and women.

Writing previously, I pointed out that there are 26 other genes on the Y chromosome, and perhaps another hundred or so genes on the X chromosome that are active in two doses in women and a single dose in men. I speculated that there may be a few hundred more genes directly affected by these X or Y genes, or by the hormones that they unleash.

This new paper suggests I underestimated by a huge margin.
 

Genes, proteins and tissues

Genes are parts of a long string of DNA, and composed of molecules that contain four different bases. The sequences of these bases encode the proteins of the body.

Our 20,000 genes make proteins that do a variety of jobs. Some make the fibres in skin or hair, some make muscles contract, and others carry the oxygen in blood. Many are enzymes that drive basic reactions of turning food into flesh and energy.

Genes work by making copies of themselves; the base sequence of DNA is copied into RNA molecules that engage with cell machinery to churn out protein. The more RNA a gene makes, the more protein will be produced.

Around one third of our genes act differently in men and women. linvoyage/flickr, CC BY

We can now measure the number of RNA copies each gene makes. A really active gene may make thousands of copies, an inactive gene may make only a few, or none at all.

This epigenetic (“over the gene”) regulation of gene activity allows specialisation of different body tissues. Your liver and your brain share the same genes, but express them differently; one subset of genes is active in the liver, and a different subset of genes is active in the brain.
 

Activity of genes in men and women

In their new paper, the authors Gershoni and Pietrokovsk looked at how active the same genes are in men and women. They measured the RNA produced by 18,670 genes in 53 different tissues (45 common to both sexes) in 544 adult post mortem donors (357 men and 187 women).

They found that about one third of these genes (more than 6,500) had very different activities in men and women. Some genes were active in men only or women only. Many genes were far more active in one sex or the other.

A few of these genes showed sex biased activity in every tissue of the body. More commonly, the difference was seen in one or a few tissues.

Most of these genes were not on sex chromosomes: only a few lay on the Y or the X.

How could a third of our genes be differently controlled in men and women?

We now understand that proteins work in extensive networks. Change the amount of one protein produced by one gene, and you change the amounts of all the proteins produced by many genes in a long chain of command.

We also know that hormones have powerful influences on gene activity. For instance, testosterone and estrogen dial up or down many genes in reproductive and body tissues.
 

Impact on physical features

The functions of sex biased genes makes some sense. Most affect the reproductive system, which we know to be very different in men and women. For instance, the new study shows that mammary glands have highest frequency of female-biased gene expression, and testis has the highest frequency of male-biased genes.

Your muscle development and hairiness are affected by genes. from www.shutterstock.com

Other sex biased genes were involved with skin (particular hairiness), muscle, fat tissue and heart, which could relate to sex differences in body morphology and metabolism.

Confirming an earlier report, some sex biased genes were involved in brain function, reopening the debate about differences in male and female behaviour.
 

Impact on disease susceptibility

These new findings could explain why men and women are often differently susceptible to diseases, and suggests treatments need to be based on studies of both sexes.

We have long known that many diseases are far more common in men (e.g. Parkinsons) or in women (e.g. Multiple Sclerosis).

This study showed that some sex-biased genes were associated with diseases. For instance, a female-biased gene is implicated in cardiovascular homeostasis and osteoporosis, and a male-biased gene in high blood pressure.

The new study also showed a big difference in expression of a gene previously found to be important for drug metabolism, which could explain why men and women may respond quite differently.

The Organization for the Study of Sex Differences has campaigned to include women in clinical trials. These results should strengthen their hand.

Like it or not, evidence now shows that men and women differ genetically far more profoundly that we have previously recognised.

What do these new insights mean for our progress toward gender equity? A bad outcome could be appeals to return to outdated sexual stereotypes. A good outcome will be recognition of sex differences in medicine and treatment.
 

Jenny Graves, Distinguished Professor of Genetics, La Trobe University
 

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

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New feminism works by normalising women through focusing on their bodies: traditionally, the first and final frontier of femininity. It violently pushes all remaining cats out of the bag.

Photo credit: The Conversation

Vaginas are so hot right now. If that sentence shocks you, then you’ve been out of the cultural loop. Thanks to a new wave of television and autobiographies by some very funny women, female privates have moved to the front and centre of popular entertainment.

Male bits, once the only game in town, are now chiefly of interest only as a sidebar to hilarious female riffs on misfiring, awkward and unsatisfactory sex, thanks to recent work by the likes of Lena Dunham, Britain’s Phoebe Waller-Bridge (writer, actor and star of BBC series Fleabag), and now Amy Schumer, whose smash hit “femoir”, The Girl With the Lower Back Tattoo, recently hit stores.

This is all part of a new movement – what I like to call “gross-out feminism”. It is gleeful, honest to a fault, and practised exclusively by women who long ago kissed goodbye to the capacity to be embarrassed. Its goal – apart from to make people laugh – is to provide a kind of shock therapy to those still harbouring the notion that women don’t have bodily functions, trapped gas, or insubordinate periods. Or that women must either be thin or desperately wishing they were so.

Photo credit: The Conversation

Gross-out feminism works by normalising women through focusing on their bodies: traditionally, the first and final frontier of femininity. It violently pushes all remaining cats out of the bag. Women have smelly, sometimes even extremely malodorous vaginas – Schumer’s smells like “chicken ramen”; “baby diaper” morning breath; explosive diarrhoea; acne. They sometimes fart during sex.

You’d be right if you noticed that this type of feminism doesn’t look like the iconic polemics of Shulamith Firestone, Naomi Wolf or Germaine Greer. It does not fit the sociological paradigm of Natasha Walter, Ariel Levy or Laurie Penny, all of whom have tackled a classic 20th century feminist subject – objectification – with political panache. And no, it’s not related either to the brainy fiction of Erica Jong or Marilyn French.

But gross-out feminism owes much to these. The classic texts of feminism laid down the parameters of the various struggles women engage in on a daily basis. One of these was the battle to be taken as full humans, complete with an independent sexuality. As far back as the 1790s, Mary Wollestonecraft raged against the reductive construction of doll-like femininity.

The new feminism builds on all this, but its toolbox is drawn not from an intellectual arena but rather from a peculiarly modern fascination with personal and especially sexual transparency. Honesty shall set us free: as sociologist Richard Sennett lamented, we moderns trade first and foremost in intimacies. But wrapped tightly in gut-busting hilarity, the relentless personal honesty of Schumer et al loses its potential for hollow narcissism and instead becomes powerful, adding vim to the traditional message to women to be strong and confident.

Schumer in particular paints an honest, if troubling picture of the impact of what Naomi Wolf so famously addressed in The Beauty Myth. Money, pain, time: a bewildering amount of these are required in order for most women to feel presentable, let alone attractive. Schumer nails this, but also admits to her own “beauty myth” victimhood.

Before a date she too waxes, straightens her hair, fasts, and tries to squeeze into Spanx so tight that they threaten to splice her guts in two. Schumer, then, is taking one for the team. She’s performing her truth so that we can exorcise our demons. The intriguing implication is that she, like Dunham and Fey, is an everywoman as well as herself. “I am myself,” in her words. “And I am all of you.”

A new sisterhood

Might this signal a reinvigoration of the idea of a universal “sisterhood” that since the 1970s has buckled under the weight of concerns about racial, ethnic and class difference? Perhaps so.

In her hit sitcom Fleabag, Phoebe Waller-Bridge does similar work to Schumer, if less autobiographical. She doesn’t spend much time on her appearance, but when an attractive man calls in the middle of the night asking to come over, waking her up, she excruciatingly manufactures the appearance of having just come in from a night out. She throws off her pyjamas, pulls on her glad rags, a coat, and swigs some wine in preparation. She is soon speaking deadpan to the camera while being taken up the backside. Her sexual honesty is eminently relatable to by millennials, and tinged with sadness. Waller-Bridge’s genius is reading with jaded perfection the sexual proclivities of men half her intellect and beauty.

There are caveats, of course. Some might argue that bringing feminism back into the body merely reaffirms the idea that women are principally bodies rather than whole people. And putting sex front and centre emphasises a potentially one-dimensional representation of what it is to be human. Both of these objections are fair. But when it comes to mainstream, massively entertaining representations of women, gross-out feminism may finally be what has been missing all these years, showing once and for all that the “fair sex” is human in both body and spirit. Warts and all.

(Zoe Strimpel is doctoral researcher, History, University of Sussex).

This article was first published on The Conversation.
 

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