We all know the whole “ women need empowerment” story because we see it around us, experience it, live it, and more often than not ignore it on daily basis. It’s debated upon more than it ever will be acted upon. And to an extent, all of us have at least once in our lives been a part of such a debate. Now a day, when a guy gets to know that I am a feminist, their attitude towards me changes, and the tone somehow catches a hint of mockery and hostility. It has come to a point where you can feel the unrest between the two genders and its going worse day by day.
Recently, I got into an argument with a gentleman in the comments section of his status on Facebook which was about how feminists take advantage of other people and misuse the whole concept. Now what he said, was clearly not what feminism is about, rather, it seemed like his recent encounters were with some pseudo-feminists who work around a very misinterpreted idea.
(The name has been cropped out)
Well, to start with, feminism is a concept, and women’s empowerment is just a tool. The idea is to acquire the same political, social, cultural and economic platform as available to men. This movement is on fire these days and everyone wants to be associated with such a positive wave of improvement in the society. However, it’s essential to notice that feminism in no means stands for the concept that women are greater than men. And because of this misinterpretation and at times, deliberate misuse, it has been reduced to a mere joke now.
There are various areas where I believe we’re going wrong with some major mainstream taglines and motivational quotes. I will try and clear my stand on at least a few of them.
Physiological (Bodily) differences – “Women are as strong as men”
Technically, our bodies are built in such a way that post-puberty, boys grow to be more muscular, whereas, girls have more of soft tissues and curves. I DO NOT mean that girls can’t do sports that well, or that they’re incapable of having muscles, but just that a woman by default would have to work harder to become as strong as a man of her age and built if both are given the same training. But when it comes to resilience, women I think are naturally better than men. Even physiologically, it’s not like any gender is superior or better than the other, they’re merely just different.
Psychological (Mental) differences – “Women are bad at math”
Attached along is a link that tells us about biases and how both genders tend to think that women are bad at math when there is no such biological reason behind it. Both the genders are just as good as math but the only thing that leads to that little lag in the score are the gender bias which disappeared in countries which aren’t as gender biased. Also, things like “women mature faster than men” are half true both in terms of physical appearance and psychological growth. Physical appearance because the growth phase in girls starts at puberty, 2 years earlier, than it typically starts in boys. So it’s not faster, but earlier. As for the psychological side of it, girls tend to spend more time with the parents during their teens and because of such environmental factors, they tend to mature earlier than boys.
Economic benefits- “women get lower interest rates”
Yes, I’m sorry but that is true for many banks and loan schemes but I have a legit explanation as to why that is necessary. Women have been a victim of this patriarchal society for too long and throughout have been financially dependent on their families or spouses. This in turn bound them to their homes even when they were being abused and mistreated. So to overcome that and to make them financially independent, such schemes were introduced. Yes, it is a little unfair to men who have women who are at par with them in the urban cities and yet are getting a lower interest rate than them, but such policies are necessary for all those who need to be empowered.
Reservation – “metro women’s coach, DU seats, the parliament, everywhere!!”
Okay, reservation has two sides to it. I won’t completely disregard its usefulness and I logically can’t accept all its aspects either. Reservation is necessary in the governing bodies to ensure that all the decisions that are being taken, are taking in consideration, a section of our society that this patriarchal system has been shutting out since years.
On the other hand, the reservation in universities is a little unjustified. But as long as they keep the cut off same, its fair enough I think. Which is because of the sole reason that in many parts of India, girls are married off before they get a chance to complete their higher education.
Metro women’s coach is a very hot topic these days as one of my friends says “you can’t even breathe in the normal coach and there’s enough space to light a warm fire in the women’s coach.”
I personally don’t support this measure as it is a poor excuse for the pathetic safety measures they’ve been claiming to implement but it had become necessary. The whole situation was such that if they weren’t able to make the women feel safe enough, they thought it was best to isolate them and be done with the complaints. It’s a very poor solution because you can’t implement it everywhere. You do this in on public transport, but what about offices, schools, buses, malls, street markets, etc?
Ultimately, if you want safety, you will have to instil a fear in the minds of the offenders. Isolating the gender in general will never be an excuse in a world where they are meant to coexist and grow in harmony.
These are just a few things I could clear my stand on. You can hate feminists if you want, but be sure to not mistake a pseudo feminist for a feminist. Any other things you’d like to discuss would be welcome in the comment box.
(Also if you can spare some time, do watch this video about the achievements of feminism)
Note: Image used in this post is only for representational purpose.
