Sexism is a social disease that can only be cured with rational and liberal ideas, there is nothing as transformational as an idea that leads to great changes in the structure of our society.
Our society is structured around archaic ideals and traditions which have always reduced the status of our women to mere slaves to men. This is the reason why the word feminist has been increasingly ‘bastardized’ in our country.
The very first step in bringing equality in our country is to enlighten the population about the misogyny that rules the society.
An enlightenment about individualism always leads to a cultural revolution. An enlightened individual will be less prone to manipulation from culture illusion. We simply have to turn our back against a culture which we had no role in making.
Every religion had their role in manipulating the role of women in the society. While Abrahamic religions had their fair share in contributing towards misogynistic ideals to different civilizations, Indian religions comparatively followed a less radical path. That was till the Manusmriti reduced the status of women and various other social groups to secondary to men.
Women in our country have also contributed to the regression of the status of women by caving into the expectations of the society.
No man is as anti-feminist than a woman who matches the society’s definition of a modest woman. It is technically impossible to liberate a person who is not aware of the chains around their neck.
They will live and die inside this social structure unless they wake up and fight against it. The mainstream media also adds to the menace by portraying women as weak individuals who crave a dominant male counterpart.
Indian English dailies were slammed a number of times for mistaking cleavage for news. The objectification of woman can be seen in almost all media from soap operas to news.
We proud Indians of the 21st century rejoice when a boy is born, and if it is a girl, a muted celebration is usually the norm.
Love for a male child is so strong that we’ve been killing our daughters at birth or before birth for a while. And if unfortunately, she makes it then we find various ways to discriminate against her throughout her life.
Our religious beliefs make women into goddesses, but we make sure we don’t recognize them as human beings first. We worship goddesses but exploit girls. We are a society of hypocrites.