Rape and sexual violence are often stigmatized and kept quiet in many cultures and societies, making living daily life dangerous for women everywhere. In Dworkin’s piece, she talks about how women already know this and how men need to come to know this and take a stand by telling other men that rape is not something to be tolerated. This is What Ram Devineni aims to do with his comic book called Priya’s Shakti. He exposes the world to Priya’s story, demanding the attention and thoughts of anyone who reads it.
Ram Devineni is a filmmaker and producer of an augmented reality digital comic book called Priya’s Shakti. The comic book focuses on raising awareness about rape and gender-based violence among teens in India. The protagonist of the story is a rape survivor who fights against the stigma surrounding rape and patriarchal views that poison Indian society. By making the protagonist a woman who is a survivor of rape, women and girls feel a sense of empowerment to talk about issues regarding gender-based violence. The book has an effect on teenage males as well, they are now exposed to a reality that they maybe never thought about or didn’t think affected them. These young men and women will now grow up knowing the reality of rape and how to fight against it.
The main goal of the comic book is quite powerful. In making its target audience the youth living in India, I suppose the idea was to impress upon that generation that will make up the future of India that rape is a real thing and that society needs to change. Priya’s Shakti was meant to be a cultural and social movement in a direction to a world where victims are not scared out of seeking help or reporting crimes, into a world where it is not the girl’s fault for being raped, where a rape survivor does not bring her family shame, a world where rape victims are not hidden from society, but empowered to tell their story if they so choose, and feel freedom to live their lives.
The movement of Priya’s Shakti is successful in going about raising awareness in very tangible and effective ways. First of all, the fact that it is a comic book makes it relevant and interesting to its target audience, pre-teens and teens. It first launched in 2014 at Comic Con in Mumbai, India, a place where hundreds of comic book lovers and teens gathered. At the convention, they had lectures in which discussions were held about rape and sexual violence. There are workshops that are held in villages in India where the youth go and learn about these issues and are given a space to talk freely about these issues and work with professionals on the topic. There have been murals painted in the streets about the comic book that people pass by everyday. These murals are actually a part of the augmented reality feature of the comics. Augmented reality provides something new and unique to the digital comic book and intrigues readers. The storyline features real stories from survivors of sexual violence from villages in India, making the story that much more of a reality, giving it that sense of urgency Dworkin discussed.
I have linked a video in which Ram Devineni talks more about Priya’s Shakti, as well as a link to the comic book’s website.
Ram Devineni on Priya’s Shakti: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1fkK0mStWs
Website: http://www.priyashakti.com/
GWST 100 01 Spring 2017 Blog 
This comic book is a fantastic idea. I do agree that it does raise awareness effectively but I wouldn’t necessarily agree that it is giving the sense of urgency. The fact that the comic is already getting good praise and helping influence the youth is a great start too because like many have said before the youth are the future but I do believe it is equally important to appeal to the much older crowd, so that they too can understand the effects of sexual assault and violence.
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I love that this comic book is in existence. It sends a message to young people that is so needed. The author takes a very popular media and allows it to bring awareness to a subject to people who need information about rape and empowerment to those who already know the subject too well. A comic book that can perform both of these difficult tasks is amazing. There are story lines in television that include rape but they are rare. I can only think of Degrassi’s story lines with their characters Paige and Darcy that really make an effort to not only show the impact over time but show that the characters were survivors, able to achieve what they wanted out of life. I am sure there are more but the ones that come to mind other than that only show a brief snapshot of the impact rape has, if they show it at all. This is an important issue and the fact that it is not explored through art and media more to raise awareness says something about the society we live in.
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I think you raise a really good point. Many times people do not want to acknowledge the influence of media like TV, radio, video games, music, or even books on our lives. We like to say that we can withstand any external influence because we already know what is right or wrong. But the truth is, every single thing in our life has an impact on us – the scary thing is that it happens whether we realize it or not. In this case, this comic book will and has had an unparalleled positive impact on the society of India. Like you mentioned, it gives everyone a sense of responsibility and power over rape and sexual violence. It educated young masses of the dangers that the world holds while also providing tools necessary for fighting this. In Kelly Oliver’s novel about sexual violence on campuses, we see similar goals as mentioned above. The desire to educate people is strong. It is the mode of receptiveness that is growing with each passing day.
http://hypatiaphilosophy.org/HRO/content/hunting-girls-sexual-violence-hunger-games-campus-rape
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I think this is such an important topic to address and an important medium to address it in. Youth are more susceptible to messages, especially in popular media sources, and to have something so positive and educating is critical to teaching the younger generation about issues like this. Maybe over time, the culture will change about rape and sexual violence and this comic will have achieved its goal.
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I love this! I think it is great that there are initiatives like this in India, and I’d love to see movement like that here in the US.
I think what’s special about this particular “educating tool” is that it is a comic book- it is integrated into normal teen life. Sometimes teens may not take classes/courses seriously, or may see it as silly. However I think teenagers (and people in general) are strongly affected by the media they surround themselves with; by having this message in modern media, it gives it more power.
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The importance of appealing to modern media in our fast paced world when it comes to a topic like this cannot be understated. Most teenagers wouldn’t want to listen to a speech or read a long article about sexual assault, so having information about it available in a teenager-friendly media is quite important. I also would be interested in seeing movements and this type of media in the US, as it is something I don’t believe is as widespread here.
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In the past few years, I have seen several different accounts of rape and sexual violence being felt with and discussed through a variety of different platforms. I have seen many different visual arts, a sculpture, a movie, a poem, and now a comic book. I appreciate how in your face this stand against sexual violence and its stigma is, with murals for people to see daily, and the comic book having good sales and being readily available. Survivors are beginning to be able to talk about their experiences thanks to these spaces being opened up. Sexual assault needs to be talked about in order to begin to comprehend it, and eventually raise awareness and end rape.
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I think getting these issues and talking about them in media facets that reach the youth is very powerful, however I would say there is a danger of being too abstract because people may not really get the point. For example like how xmen was supposed to be a commentary on how black people are treated in our society but people who watch these movies and read them can still be very ignorant and racist. That’s not what they are doing but I think that is a critique for any art form wanting to make a social commentary. Also I really like how they used augmented reality because if you look at how large Pokemon go got even though the hype is gone, it still had a huge impact on society and our culture, and with this augmented reality, it opens up doors to the kind of stories we can tell.
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That’s a really good point. There’s a balance when it comes to making something that is artistic, entertaining, and educational. If a piece of art wants to spread a message to vast amounts of people, the message needs to be clear and/or publicized. In the case of Priya’s Shakti, it helps that the comic book was debuted at a Comic Con with panels on the issues that it addressed. Even if the message is more subtle in the work, the fact that they publicized it helps.
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The comic book seems like a really great idea to fight someone of the harmful stigma’s surrounding sexual assault and rape in India. The story line of the comic sends a very powerful message and I hope that it will encourage more sexual assault survivors to come forward and seek help. Reaching the youth with this type of media will help shape the newest generation and hopefully help reduce sexual assault. I would love to see more initiatives like this in the US. I feel like art is one of the better ways to help get the message across about sexual assault. This topic needs to openly discussed in order for people to really understand this issue.
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Rape is a huge issue in India. Statitics say that every 15 minutes, a woman is raped. Women are even disrespected in religous scriptures in India. For example, The Mahabharata, Book 13 Section 40 (13.40) states, “There is no creature more sinful, than woman, she is poison, she is snake.” Even mythological stories in India glorify rape. The God Vishnu is said to have reaped Tulsi/Vrinda by pretending to be her husband, but was seen as the hero because the only way her husband could win the war was if the woman lost her chastity. The comic book is a good idea to raise awareness, but alot more has to be done in india for the issue to even start to get better.
Below is a link to where i got my information from.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/03/25/what-s-really-behind-india-s-rape-crisis
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I really like that this filmmaker is bringing to such a serious topic to everyone’s attention. More importantly, he has come up with a way to draw people in and get them to notice it, specifically the youth. Personally, I believe that rape is a big problem within our society because people are not educated enough about it at a young age. To get more general, it would be great if this method is used for many different issues we have today.
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This is definitely a bold move for spreading awareness of sexual violence. I like the authors use of a popular media among youth to try and change the thinking in India. It’s always much easier to change the minds of youth and hopefully through their generation thinking critically about sexist and rape culture will spread to other generations.
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I’ve never thought about a solution such like this one. A comic book seems like a great way to help with this problem. Bringing awareness to the issue is great and I hope that this can teach the youth about sexual assault in a way that they understand. Being able to use media and art in order to help the youth understand seems to be something that isn’t explored enough. Media is the easiest way to communicate information. Sexual assault and violence can be stopped and it starts with educating the youth. Using a comic book seems to be a very effective way of attacking this issue. Great Post!
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As others have said, I definitely think this is a unique and smart way to push this message to young people. It is utilizing a form of media that will grab the attention of comic book readers. I think that adolescents don’t necessarily like to talk about heavy subjects such as this, so this approach puts it in a way that is more “learnable” without being too heavy or uncomfortable for kids. It also allows them to learn about sexual assault at a slower pace than to have it thrown in their faces in a way that will make them uncomfortable and potentially make jokes or blow it off.
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Thanks for sharing this. Media is by far the best way to spread and raise awareness for sexual assault and rape. It’s even more powerful of a medium through a digital comic, not to mention it’s also much more accessible to the younger generation.
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This is a great start to incorporating the concept of rape into the popular culture of india. The topic of rape is very hard to talk about, which gives people a reason to not talk about it. However I think that explaining rape in a media that is easier to digest, will allow for more people to understand it and slowly cause for more complex conversations about it within our society.
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This idea of using a comic book to bring awareness to rape and gender-based violence is extraordinary. It was very smart to bring attention to a teen audience because most of the learning that people undergo occurs in the adolescent years. If people learn how to respectfully treat women and learn what not to do in relationships with women, such as rape and abuse, then the chances of them committing those actions as adults are lowered. In the movie “Precious,” the negative impacts and long term affects that being a rape and abuse victim causes is conveyed. From an audience point of view, actually seeing a movie like that and watching the drama that goes on makes me not want to do such an act. Seeing that would make me not want to commit such an act and I feel other audiences of the movie may feel the same way.
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I love the idea of this comic book. It is important to share these important messages on any platform possible and I believe that even comic books have the ability to change the perception and send a powerful message even if it is not the most traditional way of doing so. It is also crucial that the struggles of women of color are discussed because they are sometimes, in my opinion, over shadowed by other issues pertaining to western woman. Hopefully, the comic book changes the lives of those who have read it for the better and allowed people to change their ideology on rape culture.
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I like the idea of a comic book to raise awareness about sexual assault. I saw some of the pages from a review on the comic (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cixhNLksato), which lead me to believe that this comic can have a strong influence on how people feel and treat rape because of the graphic and realistic visuals.
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I think its great that somebody is trying to bring awareness to this situation and its even better that they are being creative about how they want to bring attention to it. Rape and sexual assault is a touchy subject and a lot of people shy away from it but by turning it into a comic book and giving it a heroic aspect to it, kids are more likely to respond positively to it and actually do something about it. I hope this story keeps rising and we keep battling rape and sexual violence.
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I believe this is a great approach to tackling a problem of this sort. When you want to educate a group on a touchy subject like this, its often harder to change the minds of an older group then it is younger. The comic books make it relatable for the youth. Not only does it help empower the women, it helps educate men from right to wrong and can stray them from doing something that may not be looked at as a big deal.
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I think this comic book is a great idea! It educates young boys at an early age and allows them to think about how rape effects women. I think a culture shift needs to happen at the parenting level. So, if children read these books as they age, I hope they have more respect for women and the impact of rape.
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I think that creating a comic book for teens and preteens was a great idea because it can effectively connect with them and keep their attention while also educating them on rape. Its important to share this with young children because it teaches them that rape is bad and that if it happens to them they should not hesitate to talk about it and tell someone.
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