South Asian Perspectives on Purity/R*pe Culture

Sarees on Screen

Trigger Warning: Discussions of sexual assault, r*pe, victim shaming, honor killing, and other forms of sexual violence and abuse. For anyone who may find these topics unsettling, we recommend prioritizing your mental health and not engaging with the following content.
This episode continues our conversation on South Asian r*pe culture, picking up from where we left off. Nonconsent in the media is often an unpleasant and inescapable staple, but this doesn't occur in a vacuum. It is often a reflection of a reality far worse.
In this conversation, we explored the idea of purity culture and how it often goes hand in hand with r*pe culture in perpetuating this culture of control and violence. We also talked about the disparity in the consequences of purity/r*pe culture, the idea of model victims, and the failures of both "conservative" and "liberal" talking points on this matter.
For this episode, it was important for us to explore documentaries instead of fictional media (not that documentaries can't come without their own biases!) In choosing to do so, we came across some great (and free!) documentaries on the topic that helped to frame our discussion.
We watched A Crime Unpunished in Bangladesh, Rape is Consensual: Inside Haryana’s R*pe Culture, Outlawed in Pakistan, and Boys who like Girls. If you can, we recommend you watch all of the documentaries linked here (some of them are pretty short too.)
These movies spanning across South Asia, highlight the horrible repercussions of prioritizing purity and honor over the lives and wellbeing of women and marginalized people.
Our next episode is a Saucy Deep Dive on Verna.
More available on SareesOnScreen.com
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[Music Prod. By LuKremBo]
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