By Ananya Rastogi:
I represent the educated, middle class woman of our society. She knows what she wants, has equal opportunities as any man, is not afraid to speak out her mind and is a proud feminist. And as a representative of this class, I just want to say enough with the male bashing already!
Every second blog that I come across is a feminist ranting about portrayal of women in songs, movies, advertisements, internet, about how they hate it when somebody hints at how their place is in the kitchen, how they are expected to take care of the kids and so on and so forth. Yes, the portrayal does make my blood boil and I seethe with rage if somebody as much as tells me that I will have to let go of my career for my future family and kids because I am expected to fulfil a role in society. But aren’t men at the receiving end of such opinions too? Yet I don’t see them dishing out complaints and pointing out how they are seen as nothing but objects of money/ security! Oh and let me clarify once again, I am a feminist.
Now being a science student, I’ll do this logically. I’ll divide society into two parts. One is the sensible, well read, level headed group, say group A and the other is the group who have worthless opinions which they must voice as we live in a democracy, group B. Both groups have men and women. What the feminists are doing is bashing the whole male race because of some idiotic comments of men from group B. Come now, grow up! I am sure people in group B must have said things derogatory to men too. I don’t see men from group A claiming that their sentiments have been hurt!
Yes, the songs of Sheila and Munni are demeaning to women. Women in movies are shown to be one of the following:
1. Manipulative
2. Bimbette
3. Spending her time waiting for true love.
But now look at the men in our movies. They can be categorized too.
1. Manipulative
2. Violent or rapists
3. Stalkers (in Ranjhanaa)
Yes, the women are shown not to know their own mind, are shown as weak willed and nothing like the strong woman of today. But just look again, men are shown as pelvic thrusting morons- I believe no self respecting, decent man could relate to any of the heroes of our “new, coming of age, progressive cinema”.
Coming to the advertisements, yes, women are shown as objects of desire in all the deo/ perfume, soap advertisements but in the same ones men are shown as desperate, losers trying to ensnare women all the time be it through a bike, a chocolate, a fragrance, a soap or a mobile. Yes, the women are shown to lose confidence if they are not fair/ thin/ acne free. But in the same form of media we see that losing hair/ being fat is supposedly a death knell for men too!
About the notions of general society, well for every girl who has to listen to how if her rotis are not round she won’t get married, a boy has to listen to how if he does not make enough money, he won’t get married. I agree that cooking and laundry might not be what a woman looks forward to when she returns after a day at work but I don’t think I have ever seen a man whooping with joy at the prospect of getting the car serviced or sorting out the taxes. They have a life as tough as ours.
For all of you who by now are convinced that I am not in any way a feminist and are getting huffy, save your anger for some other place. I am against dowry, I abhor unequal treatment at the work place, I believe that girls and boys should get equal opportunities to follow their dreams, I want safety for women, I want women not to be labelled loose if they have had two boyfriends. And that makes me a feminist.