Tuesday, March 8, 2011

My version of feminism

Today is woman's day and countless articles are being written about the essence of a woman. What does feminism mean to me. I am badly tempted to reel off the usual cliched answers - freedom to pursue your passion, freedom to do what you want, to be considered at par with men. Is there something I havent heard before? Hmmmm. what do I really want, what special privilege on account of being a woman. Bingo. I dont want any special privileges. I don't want to be considered some special endangered species. Damn it, I AM half the population and I created the other half. This is our world and why should we have a special day for ourselves. Every day is our day. Why a woman's day, a chosen day to honour the women............., as if that were the only day that half the population is supposed to be honoured carrying with it the intrinsic meaning that the other half rules. The whole thing seems like a ploy to indirectly convey to the women exactly what they are fighting against. If it is to highlight the plight of the downtrodden, then it shouldn't be called the woman's day. It is a sad reality that anywhere we see words like downtrodden, atrocities, poverty stricken, nine out of ten times it is a woman or her child who is at the receiving end. It should thus be called the humans day as these can very well be termed atrocities against humanity. There you have it. This is what I want as a woman. Not to be reminded that I am a woman every time I do something. To go about my life as normally as any other inhabitant of this planet. I realize I have been fortunate to be raised as an individual and not as a "woman" . This might very well have prompted my above comments what could be considered by many an ignoramus as being ultra-feminised. The point I am trying to make is its all in the upbringing. Let every parent bring up her child as a normal individual without any gender bias, without reminding her that she will forever be part of a privileged lot, giving her the belief that she can do exactly what she wants and she need not be bound by the opinion or whims and fancies of any other individual, be it male or female.
Let me know what you think.............................

5 comments:

  1. I guess you are against those women only trains in the morning rush hour commute then?

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  2. Hmmm, good one Fani.....LOL Please find out more flaws in my reasoning. ::)

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  3. Your post was an interesting and a good read. Not looking for any flaws or anything like that.

    I just wanted to know your thoughts on things like the women-only trains and other reserved things for women (like Happy hours for women where they get free drinks in bars from like 5pm-7pm in some places here). Do you think that is unfair to men since we don't have such things? i.e. does womens liberation/freedom movement, womens day that honor women etc. although perhaps well-intentioned are unfair to men?

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  4. Good one, parvathy. I must say a good attempt to bring out the current transformation of very patriarchal society of ours. I think no one can deny the current transformation of male dominant society and the greening prominence of women, however it will take some time more to reach the level of equilibrium as inherently we are indoctrinated with male consciousness.

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