The Tribune

By KIRKLAND PRATT

Two short weeks ago, 18-year-old Altrika Young was strangled, raped and left along the roadside at Saint Augustine’s Monastery. Once more, another senseless crime against a Bahamian woman gripped the nation – Altrika did nothing to deserve her mortal fate.

The reemerging stories of men exploiting women in the most diabolical ways have always resonated with me in an off-putting way. I am often baffled because in the 21st century long gone are satirical visuals of cavemen dominating their female counterparts with wooden clubs before dragging them off to the man cave for sexual exploits. With all the advancement of technology and available women around, why rape? As a behaviourist, I sometimes wonder if there exists an ingrained predatory streak in the male subgroup of our species.

Maybe it is the movies we [men] watch or the manners and mores that culture ascribes to us or the glorified world of the military and sports that assign different roles and different worth to men and women. Perhaps if indeed we fixed that culture our women would be a lot safer.

According to the Bahamas 2012 Crime and Safety Report published by the Overseas Security Advisory Council (OSAC) of the United States of America, 78 documented rapes occurred in the Bahamas in 2010. In a comparative analysis, the report outlines a significant 30% spike in 2011 with an alarming 107- recorded rapes.

In 2012, Professor Rachel Jewkes, SVRI Secretary and Director at the Gender and Health Research Unit, Medical Research Council, posited that the trend of hyper-masculinity, which reinforces male bravado, tells boys that aggression is natural and sexual defeat desirable. Moreover, even some of our Bahamian laws arguably cast women as inferior, pliable, even disposable. Some of these views have come to light as the issue of women’s rights have become an issue of contention with the recently appointed Constitutional Commission spearheaded by Sean McWeeney, QC.

Further to Professor Jewkes’ assertion, I am of the mind that in our modern day culture, we have been conditioned to discount a woman’s strength. It is often expressed in our daily references with our boys who are encouraged to exhibit strength and not to do things such as kick a ball “like a girl”. Do we implicitly teach boys to disrespect the feminine and by default disrespect women? In as much as behaviour is concerned, is this just the cultural undercurrent of rape proper?

With fewer women presenting as leaders and with the objectification of women in popular entertainment, including pornography in which women are tossed around like rag dolls and gang sexed, it becomes easier to understand how a few teenage boys may see it justifiable to “take it” from a young girl because she presents as either baiting the attack or “too stuck up for her own good”.

Ironically, many men are still of the view that women “ask for it” when they dress suggestively. Nothing could be further from the truth.

I note with curiosity the responses I receive when I don my occasional pink dress shirt. Men and women alike suggest that I am “bold” and or “a real man” to pull off such a colour. What they really admire is my ability to appear as masculine in a passive colour as I do in a traditionally masculine colour. Again, this represents conditioning.

Of course, parents and guardians need to protect our girls, but society at large must begin to teach our boys how to do the same, even when the girl is not a relative. “Boys will be boys” is no excuse. Let us get busy.

Keep thinking though, you are good for it.

• Kirkland H. Pratt, MSCP, is a Counselling Psychologist with a Master’s degree in Counselling Psychology with an emphasis in Education. He lectures in Industrial Psychology and offers counselling and related services to individuals and businesses. For comments, contact kirklandpratt@gmail.com.