Dear #IndianWoman, What is your definition of Woman?
Here is an incident that I would like to shout out to everyone.
I was travelling from Bangalore to Vizag yesterday and there was a 3.5 year old baby boy who was pretty active, very enthu for his age, asking many questions, running through the whole train, not giving his mother a moment of rest. Kids like that are a treat to watch and to be with. His mother, grand mother were also present.
There was another lady (a professor in a college it seems) with all of us, aged perhaps between 45 to 50, who was appreciating the boy for his apparent skills.
All was good, till the boy started trying to reach the upper berth. He was trying so hard but it was too tall for his height. However, everyone around him decided to cheer for him and help him climb.
This professor lady started clapping and encouraging him. She then said, "Come on, you are not a girl, you can do it".
It din't make sense to me. There were 4 women along with me right there, sitting next to me and everyone was agnostic to that remark. Nobody seemed to be taken aback nor there was the slightest discomfort.
I do not understand how it can encourage a boy or a girl when you mention to them that the respective other can't do it.
I hear things like this from many people, showing discrimination between boys and girls, between the fairer one and the darker ones and so many more. This is wrong. This is Discrimination.Aren't we educated enough to understand the meaning of such remarks?
But here, I got double shocked to hear it from a woman herself, that too a professor??
Why are We, the Women, putting ourselves down? Have we become so retarded that we do not even realise what we say?
I see that, lot of people take that remark as a usual comment, very natural way of boosting up a child's morale. But here, aren't we telling the kid that he's superior to the girl?
It is not a mere sentence, it is an outcome of a chronic mental disorder. It is a disfavor to humanity to raise your son with the impression that he is better than other females..
On one hand, we have people like #PVSindhu, #GeetaPhogat who bring glories to us and on the other hand we have Women professors who cannot even interpret the words that they say?
Hence, I choose to ask this question to everyone and request you all to ask yourselves.
ReplyDeleteI see this primarily targeted at Women. Men are also the part of same society women live in so I think it's fair to share my opinion.
There are couple of issues with this article. while I agree to the point the choice of words should have been different in encouraging the kid but I still don't see a point why this a big issue. The article seems to be in the lines of Women Empowerment, gender equality and ultimately the concept Feminism.
I do not understand the cult Feminism, its objectives and I being a Man has nothing to do with it. It talks about equal pay, equal rights and suggests a woman is no lesser than a man, alright fine.. So assuming Man and Woman both are equal in all aspects the fundamental flaw with this argument is why do we have(need) two genders in the first place if they both are equal and meant for same purpose?
And the answer is obvious they both are not... they both aren't equal. They both are unique and different in their own ways. There are instances in the lives where woman takes the precedence over Man and vice versa. For example Woman is greater in taking care of infant child and stronger in emotional balance than men. Man is more responsible for taking care of his family protection be it physical or financial. I don't think it is wrong to expect a Guy to persuade and Girl to be obedient. I think they are natural or came from family or society or lately from law of the land and most importantly from the faith/religion a person chose to follow. Having said that not everything which comes from the past is good and not everything a modern society assumes and follows is unquestionable. There should be a reasonable balance. In general I agree the gender based discrimination is bad and should be avoided but the bigger problem here is how Indian educational system and thought process have been systematically deviated from their roots since generations and now remains a mere imitator of the Western concepts.
Feminism and its actions are highly European set of ideas and do not suit us all well. Take the example of Shani Singanapur controversy of Bhoomata Brigade, prohibition of women of certain age into Shabari Malai temple while they may win in their arguments in the court that Women are equal and should be allowed it still does a lot of damage to the nativity of the culture. While everyone is free to select how they want to live and look at things it is highly recommended for Indians to keep their core ideologies corrupt free from external sources. For example it is definitely patriarchal in modern society to expect woman to follow her male counterpart but it is Dharmic and withstands in the Tharka(Logic).
So my takeaways are instead of fighting for equality in everything women should focus more on what they are naturally good at and excel in them. I think it will provide better solutions to most of the present day gender inequality issues. I do not see a better choice. Anyways these are my personal opinions and in no way are meant to hurt other beliefs.
Venkatesh.