The Malaysian Insider :: Features
The Malaysian Insider :: Features |
| Study shows young women see sexual assault as ‘normal’ Posted: 16 Apr 2014 10:21 PM PDT Many girls who are sexually assaulted may not see themselves as victims and most do not report acts of sexual violence as they regard them as "normal", Press Trust of India (PTI) reports citing a new US study. In the study, sociologist Heather Hlavka at Marquette University, US analysed forensic interviews conducted by the Children's Advocacy Centre (CAC) with 100 youths between the ages of three and 17 who may have been sexually assaulted. The young women provided insight into how some youths perceived their experiences of sexual violence and harassment during sexual encounters with men. The findings reveal that girls and young women rarely reported incidents of abuse because they regarded sexual violence against them as normal. According to the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN), 60 of sexual assaults are not reported to police, researchers said. Hlavka found that the young women in the study experienced forms of sexual violence in their everyday lives including sexual harassment, objectification and abuse which they often rationalised as normal. During one interview, referring to boys at school, a 13 year-old girl said: "They grab you, touch your butt and try to, like, touch you in the front and run away, but it's okay, I mean I never think it's a big thing because they do it to everyone." The researcher's analysis led her to identify several reasons why young women do not report sexual violence. Girls believe the myth that men cannot help it, researchers said. They said the girls interviewed described men as unable to control their sexual desires, often framing men as sexual aggressors and women as gatekeepers of sexual activity. The girls perceived everyday harassment and abuse as normal male behaviour and as something to endure, ignore or manoeuvre around, said the researchers. Many of the girls said that they did not report the incident because they did not want to make a "big deal" of their experiences. They doubted if anything outside of forcible heterosexual intercourse counted as an offence or rape. Hlavka said the girls seem to have internalised their position in a male-dominated, sexual context and likely assumed authority figures would view them as "bad girls" who prompted the assault. She found that girls do not support other girls when they report sexual violence. The young women expressed fear that they would be labelled or accused of exaggeration or lying by both authority figures and their peers, decreasing their likelihood of reporting sexual abuse. The study appears in the journal Gender & Society. – Bernama, April 17, 2014. |
| A fetish for full body suits in Japan Posted: 16 Apr 2014 09:00 PM PDT By night, she dresses in a skin-tight, all-in-one Spandex body suit that covers everything – including her eyes – and sits in bars, alone but liberated, she believes, from the judgement of others. "With my face covered, I cannot eat or drink like other customers," said the woman, who is in her 20s and says her name is Hokkyoku Nigo (North Pole No. 2). "I have led my life always worrying about what other people think of me. They say I look cute, gentle, childish or naive," she said, her lips ruffling the tight, red shiny material. "I always felt suffocated by that. But wearing this, I am just a person in a full body suit." Hokkyoku Nigo is part of a small subset in Japan with a fetish for wearing outfits called "zentai" – an abbreviation of "zenshintaitsu", which means "full body suit" – who say they are seeking liberation by effacing the physical self. Some meet through internet forums and through gatherings like the Tokyo Zentai Club, whose ten members get together every other month, just like any other group, to hold barbecues or parties. Unlike any other group, they are covered head-to-toe in skintight Lycra. "I was always fascinated by hero costumes as a child," said member Hanaka, 22, who was introduced to the club by her 25-year-old boyfriend, Popo. "When I was 13 or 14, I even tried to make a full-body suit myself, sewing stockings together. But I stopped, thinking maybe I was doing something weird. "I was really happy when I finally found out on the internet that there were people like me out there," said Hanaka, who always comes to Tokyo Zentai Club events with Popo. Invisible touch While the hobby is a long way from being mainstream in Japan, a country with an unsurpassed ability to dream up slightly off-the-wall pastimes, it makes occasional appearances in popular culture. Among the most prominent was a movie of comedy vignettes that each focused on common but crushingly awkward social situations that were resolved through a conversion to zentai wearing. In one, a recipe-blogging housewife who is a victim of bullying by a group of homemakers gives up the fight against the over-bearing leader and finds liberation in a circle of zentai lovers. And in seeming homage to the superheroes whose unspoken presence informs adherents' costume choices, a young man dressed as a Power Ranger made headlines in Japan after it was revealed he hangs around at the entrance to a subway station to help young mothers carry their baby buggies down stairs. While some might have good deeds on their minds as they slip inside their suits, others acknowledge there is something sexual about the practice. "I like to touch and stroke others and to be touched and stroked like this," said a 36-year-old teacher, Nezumiko. "Once you are in one of these suits, you can feel the person, instead of looking at them. "I am not a lesbian, but I wouldn't mind being with a woman like this... In zentai, it is a completely different kind of sensation from straight sex." 'Erasing' appearance Academic Ikuo Daibo of Tokyo Mirai University said zentai fans seems to be groping for a different way of expressing their own identity. "In Japan, many people feel lost; they feel unable to find their role in society," he said. "They have too many role models and cannot choose which one to follow." He said they take solace from the erasing of their outward appearances and say they believe it offers a way for people to get to know others as they are, rather than because of how they look. "In a way, they are trying to expose their deeper self by hiding their own identity," said Daibo. "I find it a very interesting way of communication." Alice Omori, 40, a practitioner for around 20 years who now runs an Internet-based tailoring service for fellow zentai fetishists, agreed. "You can feel so good and happy just by wearing this," he told AFP as he stood in his custom-made suit, cut to cleave tightly to the outline of his head, hands, penis and feet. "You can savour more mentally-fulfilling communication with others," he said. "It is such a wonderful thing." – AFP, April 17, 2014. |
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