I often wonder how wrong we can be in our self righteousness if we fail to stop, listen and see the perspective. Our inflated egos, our acquired myopia to anything which we "feel" is not right, our inability to empathize - all often puts us into situations where we tend to either brush away any contradictory opinion citing as frivolous or chose just to ignore it out of pure ignorance.
The new fad in the market is Feminism. It is impossible to live a day and not experience something where the urgency of gender equality is not shoved down our already strained senses.
I feel Woman has never been more conflicted than today. Yes, we "feel" have come a long way since the colonial days where the existence of a lady was determined by the family - and not by her own presence. In our self righteousness we claim that today's woman is self empowered and does not need anyone to define herself. We praise the working woman saying that today she has the opportunity to be what she truly wants to be. Our tea and coffee breaks are about how she was imprisoned and how she is breaking the shackles.
True.
Yet - I feel deeply saddened by the fact that in saying these things we are still discriminating against her.
I have seen many a brilliant ladies struggling with the image of the perfect woman as portrayed everywhere around us. Why does a man have liberty to dress shabbily, not cut hair, not shave and come to work dressed in chappals - yet we expect woman to look good and work good.
And then there is another dangerous phenomenon happening. Many a parents think that girl kids need more tenderness and the boy kids can be handled more roughly. That it is okay to hit a boy child, because they are strong. But that is where the seed of discrimination is sown. The boy child, beaten up in childhood will find it okay to hit another human being - and will one day become perpetrator of the same violence.
Somewhere in complimenting a lady on her looks we are totally disregarding her intellect. It somehow feels like a grand conspiracy of diverting her mind to everything else so as she does not realize that she is not being treated at par.
I read this so called whatstapp wisdom sometime back where a girl child asks a sage about differential treatment - and the response given is that a girl is like a jewel and needs to be preserved, boys are like iron, blah, blah.
What crap! This mindset makes me feel sick to the core. In the name of caller her a jewel we are in effect enslaving her intellect and herself forever - without her realizing that she has in reality become a puppet of society.
We are more than happy to share jokes about how much time a woman take to get ready and how quickly a man does get ready - but again in my opinion that is the part of the grand conspiracy. A woman has equal right to be shabby if she wants, be brilliant if she wants - and it should be no-one's business to judge another person man or woman.
But alas, we still sell fairness creams. And we still objectify a woman's body in everything. Because it sells.
It is this mentality which enslaves us to the core and while many of us respect her - get misguided by the stereotypes created by the society.
Why does man always need to be a savior to a woman - and not a friend or a companion where they enjoy the life for the love of it?
I respect woman. But no more or no less than I would respect a man or a child or an elderly person or any other living form. The respect should not be attached to the gender at all. As humans the respect should be for each others existence.
Till the time we keep commenting more on what she dresses than on what she does - we still will be a medievalist patriarchal society.
The ideal world is not where women are treated equal.
The ideal world is where equality is not a point.
On this women's day, let us make a pledge to look at each other beyond our genders and need not "celebrate" one day to remind our selves that we all are equal!
The new fad in the market is Feminism. It is impossible to live a day and not experience something where the urgency of gender equality is not shoved down our already strained senses.
I feel Woman has never been more conflicted than today. Yes, we "feel" have come a long way since the colonial days where the existence of a lady was determined by the family - and not by her own presence. In our self righteousness we claim that today's woman is self empowered and does not need anyone to define herself. We praise the working woman saying that today she has the opportunity to be what she truly wants to be. Our tea and coffee breaks are about how she was imprisoned and how she is breaking the shackles.
True.
Yet - I feel deeply saddened by the fact that in saying these things we are still discriminating against her.
I have seen many a brilliant ladies struggling with the image of the perfect woman as portrayed everywhere around us. Why does a man have liberty to dress shabbily, not cut hair, not shave and come to work dressed in chappals - yet we expect woman to look good and work good.
And then there is another dangerous phenomenon happening. Many a parents think that girl kids need more tenderness and the boy kids can be handled more roughly. That it is okay to hit a boy child, because they are strong. But that is where the seed of discrimination is sown. The boy child, beaten up in childhood will find it okay to hit another human being - and will one day become perpetrator of the same violence.
Somewhere in complimenting a lady on her looks we are totally disregarding her intellect. It somehow feels like a grand conspiracy of diverting her mind to everything else so as she does not realize that she is not being treated at par.
I read this so called whatstapp wisdom sometime back where a girl child asks a sage about differential treatment - and the response given is that a girl is like a jewel and needs to be preserved, boys are like iron, blah, blah.
What crap! This mindset makes me feel sick to the core. In the name of caller her a jewel we are in effect enslaving her intellect and herself forever - without her realizing that she has in reality become a puppet of society.
We are more than happy to share jokes about how much time a woman take to get ready and how quickly a man does get ready - but again in my opinion that is the part of the grand conspiracy. A woman has equal right to be shabby if she wants, be brilliant if she wants - and it should be no-one's business to judge another person man or woman.
But alas, we still sell fairness creams. And we still objectify a woman's body in everything. Because it sells.
It is this mentality which enslaves us to the core and while many of us respect her - get misguided by the stereotypes created by the society.
Why does man always need to be a savior to a woman - and not a friend or a companion where they enjoy the life for the love of it?
I respect woman. But no more or no less than I would respect a man or a child or an elderly person or any other living form. The respect should not be attached to the gender at all. As humans the respect should be for each others existence.
Till the time we keep commenting more on what she dresses than on what she does - we still will be a medievalist patriarchal society.
The ideal world is not where women are treated equal.
The ideal world is where equality is not a point.
On this women's day, let us make a pledge to look at each other beyond our genders and need not "celebrate" one day to remind our selves that we all are equal!