I see a very high number of individuals having quarrel over the cause of feminism which although apart from minor buoyant humor based leg pulling is quiet unfortunate, especially in India. In the US, now they are having these campaigns against "body shaming" that we should not even call fat people "fat". Although whether this actually promotes or justify an unhealthy lifestyle is a matter of out of context debate, I would want to compare the situation where Indians stands at. Are our human sensitivity at that conscious level?
I would like to admit that up until this time I was a part of the "anti-feminist troll" team which are largely active on the social media. You must also have come across one of them. For example, how many times you have seen one of those memes on your Facebook feed complaining about how few women sit into the "men" seats but when men do the same "by mistake", they are abused and hurled. I would not say that I cannot imagine a scenario like that but the outrage towards it is pretty biased at least and ignorant at worst. Just ask yourself, is this treatment even slightly comparable to what women in this country has been facing through? Are these suitable reasons for hunting down feminists on our friends list and desperately trying to shame them down. I don't know whether you are one of the troll gang, before you share or like any such post, probably you should have a reality check.
Acid attacks are probably the term which many of you might have forgotten or never heard of since recent days unless you are very closely following local news. They go so less reported that a majority of the people aren't even aware of them and they are seemed to be so old century crime, one which seems to be not happening in the decade. Of course, it isn't true. Just yesterday night there was a news about two acid attacks which were "reported"(Mind you). One of the victims of this horrific crime which easily leads the family to bankruptcy for the treatment was a 12th standard girl. A prick proposed for marriage to her and threw the chemical on her face when she refused. The legal scenario and statistics of the acid attacks are over-viewed in this article.
Needless to mention, there are other horrific crimes including martial rapes, dowry abuse. With all the advancements, there are still large number of females "married off" to a complete stranger and expected to serve him on the bed. In a country, where females are allowed to have more time to choose a dress than for their life partner, how many more rapes would it take for us to finally realize and stand up rigid on the cause? How many more suicides are going to take place before we realize that we should stand against any dowry practice we come across in our lives?
But from where are we going to get our time and spirits for it if we are busy pulling down the ones who are open about their feminism inclinations? It is high time we begin to introspect ourselves. Note, if you see one more such meme or a post, kindly don't like it or share it. Either ignore or drop down a comment expressing strong disagreement. If you are the one who enjoys it, you are just one of the elements which have resulted into this messy mindset. You are the one who have resulted into so much confusion and shaming around feminism.
Despite even the disgusting, narrow minded bullies present, I just cannot imagine why would an educated person in the present will have any problem in declaring him/her as a feminist. Needless to say, feminism also includes equal rights for men to exempt them from common illogical social expectations like being the breadwinner of the family. Why are there still so much hesitation around the word? The answer to it probably comes from my experience from the time when I was too a bully of feminism. There was a comment from a guy from London on a Facebook post who in an irrelevant manner highlighted that there is a huge problem of gang rapes in India. Absent mindedly around half a dozen people including jump into the surprise debate which I later realized was meaningless. The Britisher turned out to be a very calm and decent person who later discussed the problems in England and how we are supposed to deal with problems. I "switched" to his side but the lines which shook me was from a girl who after seeing the thread could not help but sharing her disapproval and pointed out that in such a coveted debate about how India is "improving", there was not a single girl involved. She also mentioned there is literally no improvement in the rates of crime and we should be accepting facts as bravely.
Now, did anything she or the guy told was wrong? No. Then why were the people furious? It is just that our male ego came in between. We could just not see somebody else criticizing our country. This triggers a cognitive dissonance among us with our brains having a sweet impression of being so concerned about the cases but our nature is already that of a pervert. Also, Indians are generally believed to be sentimental and go defensive, so if you abruptly point out their issues- good luck with the talking. We don't care about the original issues themselves, but we get all fired up if somebody mentions it in a dry manner.
"Girl Power" is trending currently with PV Sindhu, Deepa Karmakar and Sakshi Malik winning the hearts with their performances, I hope it stays for a while. I sincerely hope that none of them who are sharing it will not be involved into eve teasing later down the line along with "friends". With increase in number of educated youths, you can very clearly see that society is moving towards more logical and modern mindset with many of the evil practices going rare. This is a clear cut logical outcome of diversity based education system.
One thing I think I should clear is my own postition about Feminism. From today, I pledge to come out openly as a feminist. I would not be involved in any eve teasing or any other such activity which might result in inconvenience to the opposite gender and support the cause. My feminism is not restricted to professional life but also personal life. I don't have any control over any human being and I am not supposed to have it. We are beings who crave love and we should not be susceptible to momentarily satisfying ego hood.
I don't want this noble cause to turn into some kind of brawl where something else in the name of "equality" is forced down somebody's throat. Those type of people are going to be there, for sure. But we cannot deal with them by nagging down the whole concept of feminism as a whole, but instead identifying the people having progressive thoughts and standing together with them.
I would like to admit that up until this time I was a part of the "anti-feminist troll" team which are largely active on the social media. You must also have come across one of them. For example, how many times you have seen one of those memes on your Facebook feed complaining about how few women sit into the "men" seats but when men do the same "by mistake", they are abused and hurled. I would not say that I cannot imagine a scenario like that but the outrage towards it is pretty biased at least and ignorant at worst. Just ask yourself, is this treatment even slightly comparable to what women in this country has been facing through? Are these suitable reasons for hunting down feminists on our friends list and desperately trying to shame them down. I don't know whether you are one of the troll gang, before you share or like any such post, probably you should have a reality check.
Acid attacks are probably the term which many of you might have forgotten or never heard of since recent days unless you are very closely following local news. They go so less reported that a majority of the people aren't even aware of them and they are seemed to be so old century crime, one which seems to be not happening in the decade. Of course, it isn't true. Just yesterday night there was a news about two acid attacks which were "reported"(Mind you). One of the victims of this horrific crime which easily leads the family to bankruptcy for the treatment was a 12th standard girl. A prick proposed for marriage to her and threw the chemical on her face when she refused. The legal scenario and statistics of the acid attacks are over-viewed in this article.
Needless to mention, there are other horrific crimes including martial rapes, dowry abuse. With all the advancements, there are still large number of females "married off" to a complete stranger and expected to serve him on the bed. In a country, where females are allowed to have more time to choose a dress than for their life partner, how many more rapes would it take for us to finally realize and stand up rigid on the cause? How many more suicides are going to take place before we realize that we should stand against any dowry practice we come across in our lives?
But from where are we going to get our time and spirits for it if we are busy pulling down the ones who are open about their feminism inclinations? It is high time we begin to introspect ourselves. Note, if you see one more such meme or a post, kindly don't like it or share it. Either ignore or drop down a comment expressing strong disagreement. If you are the one who enjoys it, you are just one of the elements which have resulted into this messy mindset. You are the one who have resulted into so much confusion and shaming around feminism.
Despite even the disgusting, narrow minded bullies present, I just cannot imagine why would an educated person in the present will have any problem in declaring him/her as a feminist. Needless to say, feminism also includes equal rights for men to exempt them from common illogical social expectations like being the breadwinner of the family. Why are there still so much hesitation around the word? The answer to it probably comes from my experience from the time when I was too a bully of feminism. There was a comment from a guy from London on a Facebook post who in an irrelevant manner highlighted that there is a huge problem of gang rapes in India. Absent mindedly around half a dozen people including jump into the surprise debate which I later realized was meaningless. The Britisher turned out to be a very calm and decent person who later discussed the problems in England and how we are supposed to deal with problems. I "switched" to his side but the lines which shook me was from a girl who after seeing the thread could not help but sharing her disapproval and pointed out that in such a coveted debate about how India is "improving", there was not a single girl involved. She also mentioned there is literally no improvement in the rates of crime and we should be accepting facts as bravely.
Now, did anything she or the guy told was wrong? No. Then why were the people furious? It is just that our male ego came in between. We could just not see somebody else criticizing our country. This triggers a cognitive dissonance among us with our brains having a sweet impression of being so concerned about the cases but our nature is already that of a pervert. Also, Indians are generally believed to be sentimental and go defensive, so if you abruptly point out their issues- good luck with the talking. We don't care about the original issues themselves, but we get all fired up if somebody mentions it in a dry manner.
"Girl Power" is trending currently with PV Sindhu, Deepa Karmakar and Sakshi Malik winning the hearts with their performances, I hope it stays for a while. I sincerely hope that none of them who are sharing it will not be involved into eve teasing later down the line along with "friends". With increase in number of educated youths, you can very clearly see that society is moving towards more logical and modern mindset with many of the evil practices going rare. This is a clear cut logical outcome of diversity based education system.
One thing I think I should clear is my own postition about Feminism. From today, I pledge to come out openly as a feminist. I would not be involved in any eve teasing or any other such activity which might result in inconvenience to the opposite gender and support the cause. My feminism is not restricted to professional life but also personal life. I don't have any control over any human being and I am not supposed to have it. We are beings who crave love and we should not be susceptible to momentarily satisfying ego hood.
I don't want this noble cause to turn into some kind of brawl where something else in the name of "equality" is forced down somebody's throat. Those type of people are going to be there, for sure. But we cannot deal with them by nagging down the whole concept of feminism as a whole, but instead identifying the people having progressive thoughts and standing together with them.
“Women’s liberation is automatically men’s liberation. Women’s slavery is automatically men’s slavery. They go together.” - Osho.
