We live in a world where we have restricted women to be under societal norms. Societal norms, as we call it, can be viewed as cultural products where we expect an individual to have just a basic knowledge of what a woman does, and what is expected out of her. Though societal norms is a broad topic we have made it a synonym to patriarchal ideology. The society has a wrong notion about feminism and women empowerment and has already concluded that they are modern topics like that of self-love which is relevant to Gen Y. But we fail here to understand that women have been there right from the beginning along with men. So its high time to understand the genuine objectives conveyed through these topics.
We have witnessed many campaigns with posters denoting a woman with ten hands each holding the responsibilities she takes in society. But have we meticulously implanted that image in our soul? If so, we would not have seen cases of disrespect towards women in this patriarchal society. I am not blaming or discriminating a specific gender here, but I am to remove the parochial thought in each one of us about women. Let's begin with the differences we have created between genders in society. On the first place, why have the differences arisen? A male or a female embryo develops just with a combination of two types of chromosomes. If we try to differentiate genetically, a female embryo goes with XX chromosomes(homogametic) and a male embryo forms with XY chromosomes(heterogametic). I wish to apprehend cautiously whether have we started differentiating and demeaning a particular gender arising from the chromosome combination? The differences have multiplied so much that we have callously ignored the power of women. We have various movies, articles and books throwing a punch at patriarchy, but we have not received with full vigour. I have seen certain men who do not wish to comment on female-centric films because of their bigoted, parti pris notions. These beliefs have left me with a sense of trepidation. On one side, we help the poor and underprivileged to be treated equally, while on the other side, we have cocooned our women under patriarchal approach. The situation gets worst after a woman's marriage. More than love and understanding, marriage has commercially been a tie with a multitude of securities and demands. In this constitution of marriage, women are conditioned to remain quietly at the receiving end of everyday patriarchal violence. We expect the women to "move on" and reconcile for the sake of family and relatives, right from unfaltering contentment in domesticity and holding her dreams in abeyance to the uneasiness of being taken for granted in marriage.
For any human being, the first and foremost for which we have all been striving hard in our lives is for happiness and respect. These are the two things that every individual deserves inevitably in a lifetime. As a strong note, a woman should retaliate when her respect and dignity are questioned- a docile insurgent on the margins!
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