My mother once told me, “You are never safe as a woman, even when you die. As long as men live on this earth.” A terrible fact, not meant to scare me, but meant to prepare me. It was her way of passing down a bitter truth disguised as protection. A reality constructed from the long, violent history of how women’s bodies are treated in this world.
Women, from an early age, learn what it means to be watched, touched, and followed. They are taught to police their own movements, words, and clothing. They are expected to take responsibility for the way they are perceived. If a woman is assaulted, they are asked: What were you wearing? Why were you there? Why didn’t you scream louder? Rules forever unspoken laced through society. Even if they follow every single pointless rule, they still are not safe.
The threat doesn’t disappear after death. It follows women forever, even into the grave. Necrophilia is defined as the secular attraction to a dead body. Though not every necrophiliac is violent, the harshest form, like so many forms of violence, seems to disproportionately target women.
When a woman’s body is violated after death, it is not only a crime of pleasure for the living; it is a despicable reminder of how little her autonomy ever meant to some people in life. Her silence becomes an invitation. Her stillness, permission. Her death, to be used as a loophole. Her body, a disposable object to consume.
Modern society is engraved in ideas that infantilize domination, silence, and passivity in women. From pornography to modern television, comes an overlap between desire and death. Necrophilia is not an anomaly among worldly issues—it is the final manifestation of a worldview that sees women not as full human beings, but as things.
The world must end in the truth that there are women whose stories will never be told. Whose death will never be discovered. Whose bodies have been defiled in secret, a last grab for their dignity. Mothers try to prepare their daughters for a world that has already decided what their bodies are worth.
The threat doesn’t disappear after death. It follows women forever, even into the grave. Necrophilia is defined as the secular attraction to a dead body. Though not every necrophiliac is violent, the harshest form, like so many forms of violence, seems to disproportionately target women.
When a woman’s body is violated after death, it is not only a crime of pleasure for the living; it is a despicable reminder of how little her autonomy ever meant to some people in life. Her silence becomes an invitation. Her stillness, permission. Her death, to be used as a loophole. Her body, a disposable object to consume.
Modern society is engraved in ideas that infantilize domination, silence, and passivity in women. From pornography to modern television, comes an overlap between desire and death. Necrophilia is not an anomaly among worldly issues—it is the final manifestation of a worldview that sees women not as full human beings, but as things.
The world must end in the truth that there are women whose stories will never be told. Whose death will never be discovered. Whose bodies have been defiled in secret, a last grab for their dignity. Mothers try to prepare their daughters for a world that has already decided what their bodies are worth.
It should not be a radical act to demand that a woman be safe. Not in her home. Not on the street. Not in the workplace. Not in her body. Not in her death.
And yet, we continue to exist in this reality.
"As long as men live on this earth," my mother said. Perhaps if more choose to listen to their mothers, then one day, that sentence won’t sound like a curse passed down through generations. Maybe one day, young girls won’t have to grow up hearing it at all. Perhaps one day we will all be free.
And yet, we continue to exist in this reality.
"As long as men live on this earth," my mother said. Perhaps if more choose to listen to their mothers, then one day, that sentence won’t sound like a curse passed down through generations. Maybe one day, young girls won’t have to grow up hearing it at all. Perhaps one day we will all be free.
