Being a woman in this world means fighting to survive each day. That's why we need feminism

At home, at work, in public--women have been waging a war against sexism. Will it ever end?

Shene Bhat Shene Bhat
मार्च 29, 2017
Society thinks you can't be a woman without a man. But why does it forget, that it's the woman who actually gives birth to the man? Photo: Shutterstock/IndiaPicture

There is a midwives tale that says that female babies are more resilient than male babies. Perhaps the girls already know that they do not have the luxury of falling sick and are born expecting a fight to survive at every point.

Let's face it: this is the truth of all women; even more so of those who belong to India. 

The fact is that women are fighting for their space in this world. To survive, to just exist, like any other species, women fight a battle with a world that has already stacked the deck against them since the moment they are born. They are forced to fight for everything right from their first breath to their last and everything in between. As a child, a woman who asks questions is considered a rebellious child and a someone who needs to be controlled, and once she grows up everything that a woman does has to be justified in some way to others. You see, she must always be answerable to the men in her life, and specially to the men who aren't in her life.

If it's not someone she knows; then she must negotiate with a faceless force: society. A society whose laws are forever changing and more binding than the Constitution of India, a society which reprimands her for asking questions and punishes her for doing anything beyond its mandate.

The truth is that being a woman means being continually punished. Punished until she learns to cross her legs; punished for crossing them when her husband needs his fix; punished for not smiling despite that black eye; punished for not making round rotis. Most of all, she is punished for being a woman--for even the most obedient ones are beaten, raped, mutilated, and mentally abused.

Also Read: Feminist until married? Sorry, people I will continue to be one even after the wedding Women are supposed expected to be the sacrificial queens of this sexist society. The idea that sacrifice is noble is internalized into women to such an extent that don't think twice before giving up the softer blanket or that last roti imagining that it is good manners to do so.

The tale of the woman at work is no different either. She has to work twice as hard to just be allowed to exist, while the men have to work as much as the work demands for double the pay and respect.

Day after day, women fight condescending attitude from men at work. Men who think it is okay to ruffle a woman's hair like she is a child or a puppy; men who say we'll crunch the numbers because you cannot possibly be capable; men touch women inappropriately, simply because they imagine that being a man entitles him to it and that a woman should take it as a compliment.

Everyday women fight this behaviour--at work, at home, at public places. Yet, not too many of us talk about it--because it's a normal everyday routine to face the antics of men. And when it gets intolerable, then we change our company and avoid the person, because we all know that despite the brouhaha created by the armchair activists, the perpetrators will always get away and  victim will always be blamed.

Day after day women live like this, and day after day men ask why we need feminism.

All women want is equality, but more than that they want the right to live the way they choose. They don't need to be told that eating Chinese food makes them promiscuous; wearing jeans makes them look available; or that not waxing their arms and ass makes them unattractive to suitors. Also Read: What really, truly makes a feminist? Hint: Man-hating is not a criteria

The world exists because every person came out of a woman. If she can handle that, she can handle anything. So don't tell her what to do because of her sex, let her be and she will thrive.

 

लगातार ऑडनारी खबरों की सप्लाई के लिए फेसबुक पर लाइक करे      

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