Stop expecting women to be perfect victims

In cases of sexual violence, the concept of the "perfect victim" frequently surfaces. This ideal woman should be frightened but not hysterical, traumatized yet coherent, and angry without harboring vindictiveness. She is expected to report the incident promptly, retain precise memories, sever ties with the perpetrator, and display behaviors that align with institutional perceptions of a victim.

However, real-life women often fail to meet these unrealistic expectations, highlighting the stark disparity between reality and this fabricated ideal.

The case of Tarun Tejpal exemplifies this contradiction. In 2013, the young colleague of Tejpal was allegedly raped in a hotel elevator. A Goa sessions court acquitted him in 2021, scrutinizing the complainant's actions before and after the alleged assault. The court found her conduct atypical, arguing she did not exhibit "normative behavior" typical of a sexual assault victim.

However, on August 6, the Bombay High Court overturned this acquittal, convicting Tejpal of rape and sentencing him to 10 years of rigorous imprisonment. The court rejected the notion that a woman's credibility can be judged based on a predefined victimhood script.

This "perfect victim" concept is not solely a legal issue but a social construct. Society has constructed a cultural narrative surrounding sexual violence, in which a "real" victim is expected to behave in identifiable ways. These assumptions are flawed and transform a woman's attempts to survive, process, or make sense of her trauma into evidence against her.

Women are understandably angered by these demands, as they are repeatedly questioned about their actions during the assault, as if their behavior is the primary evidence of their victimhood.

These inquiries often occur in various settings, including courts, newsrooms, universities, workplaces, and families. While some may appear as mere factual questions, they ultimately serve to scrutinize and judge a woman's reaction to her trauma, demanding she behave in a way that makes the violence seem less challenging to accept. The perfect victim is part of a broader obsession with female perfection, reflecting society's demand for women to be complex and messy humans who comply with rigid expectations.

The cruelty of this demand is immense. Women are subjected to two violations: the initial assault and the subsequent interrogation of their actions and reactions. Institutions and society at large relentlessly seek a single definition of trauma, overlooking the fact that every individual's experience is unique. This relentless pursuit demands women to prove their humanity, first during and then after the assault, by performing a "perfect victim" act that society finds acceptable.