Been the Taliban in Swat, or the Ramasene (Rama Insane according to a friend of mine), or all the war stories written all through history, one fact is common all through... Whether the men win their wars or lose them, the women always lose. I am a 21st century, progressive young woman and after all the talk of women empowerment that I have heard talks about, it still feels like I am getting sops to shut my gob in regards to equality rather than the real deal.
As usual, my thought process has been triggered by incidents happening in the day to day world. Apparently a boy in an MBA school had been circulating a video of his ex-gf strip teasing for him. One of the comments from the user of the article was to tell the girls not to do stupid things like letting their bfs capture them on camera when their clothes are not on. Even more disconcerting was the opinion by the women rights activist who had deplored the boy, but goes on to suggest that the video is obscene. When has a woman’s body been obscene? I mean if that word had been used in the context of a man, I could understand. They don’t have the necessary curves to make their bodies art. When all the filth is in the minds of the men who treat women like sex objects, why are the women blamed for it. Why is it that it’s the women who are supposed to curtail themselves?
The connection of this incident with war and all the moral policing is also the same. As long as the woman is subjugated and deprived, the men feel they are victorious. Most of the time it isn’t about winning kingdoms, but it is about hurting the man’s ego by hurting his woman. All the rape and pillage through history has been about it. Even now a man’s or a family’s honour is decided by the behaviour of the women folk. What does all this societal crap lead to? Rules and regulations for the woman to follow. Never heard of those being laid for the men. A man can walk around the way he wants to, wearing anything, revealing any part of his anatomy, but a woman in the same clothes would attract attention, would be judged and branded as docile, homely, sluttish etc.
When dichotomy exists at such a basic level, why are we talking about equality for women? The dichotomy is so very ingrained that women think like that about their fellow sisters. Then why are we talking about empowerment of women. The battle has been fought for so long for something that is so readily available for the men, that I sometimes feel something is wrong with the battle itself. No I am not saying that I don’t want women to have freedom, but I suppose I don’t think we woman need to fight for it. I suppose we just assume it exist and live our lives with that as the basic fact. Just like we breath because we believe that oxygen exists and hence doesn’t require to be fought for. Think its time women started rewriting the way society functions. Think there has to be active revolution to change the way the world live.
PS: This blog entry I think will continue.....
I have too many thoughts clamouring my head, so will write about them some time soon.
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