A woman is what her name aptly says. WO-MAN. She is nothing WithOut-A MAN. Don't jump to conclusions and call me patriarchal. But thats what the society I live in has fed in my systems. From the moment I was born to my wedding to my present times, everything I do is managed/monitored/approved/disapproved/judged/based on what the men around me want/think/feel. I was born a second daughter and adopted my father's surname. I went to a school where my parents wanted me to go and studied what they wanted me to. I married the man my father chose(he did choose right, though) and now run that man's household. He is generally open minded and non-opinionated when it comes to feminist ideas. But when we fight, pat comes the male ego and the bread earner dialogues. Is that what a woman is raised to be? From a daughter to a sister to a wife to a mother!
I'm sure any woman would rather have the following adjectives attached to her name- Powerful, important, loving, compelling than merely the roles she plays. Not that all women enjoy the roles they play, but days like International Women's Day get the sadist out of me. That's like the anti-V-Day protesters saying all days are for loving, why have one specific day. Similarly, all days belong to both the sexes then why have one day dedicated to her. Is it because she is so suppressed that you need 1/365 days to uplift her? And how do you uplift her exactly? By giving full page ads in print media with pics of Rahul Gandhi(uggh and again a MAN) screaming for woman empowerment. By making viral, videos of a lone girl on a street saved by 6 MEN of various genders. What are we trying to prove here? Again my point of a Woman being not allowed to be anything without a man!
It is the society that first stereotypes her and casts her in a homemaker role. She may work in an MNC and earn a 6 figure salary but she is the one who has to serve dinner at night. And when her achievements are shown to the world, then they are shown as 'breaking the shackles', 'rising in a man's world' etc etc etc...I can get conjunctivas just reading such biased phrases.
Is this the dark side of our society? More specifically of the lopsided Indian society where we compartmentalise things and women are supposed to be in their pigeonholes doing their duties. If we wish to change and empower her as the world says, then first lets empower ourselves. Empower our own self to think broadly. Empower each man who expects his wife to pack for his trip. She does it out of love, it isn't her duty. Empower each parent who gets their daughter married to a man they chose. She did it because she trusts you not because it is her duty. Empower each in laws who feel their daughter in law should be the first to rise. She wakes up early because she wants to live up to you not because it is her duty. Empower each individual who nudges her in the bus, stares her down in her clothes or judges her when she drinks/smokes. After all, if our thinking isn't empowered enough then she cannot be empowered.
Let her live, breathe, enjoy all of the 365 days. Painting one day Pink won't help!
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