Feminism. What comes you your mind when you say or hear this word? Burning the bras? Gender role? Stereotypes? And what not. The worst part about this word is that it’s the most misunderstood word in the world ever. People actually don’t really understand the meaning of feminism. Many tend to think that it’s a negative word, it’s not that they are sexist or suppressed. They don’t really know the meaning of it.
Some People portray it in such an aggressive way that many people tend to take feminism in s wrong way and maybe they aren’t that wrong? Are they? Ask this to the women, the educated and working women who think feminism is a negative word.
I call myself a feminist no doubt. But a few days back I was talking to my mother, who’s a very educated working woman, in fact she’s a teacher. She always encourages me to do whatever I want, study whatever I want and be whoever I want but despite all these things feminism is a misunderstood concept for her as well. It shocked me at first. I was like what is mummy talking about? She always believes in equality then why wouldn’t she call her self a feminist? This is due to the fact that some people do show feminism is a wrong way. She thinks God made us all equals. They made us so as to balance each other out, mummy says men are comparatively stronger physically but women are way stronger mentally. This way they balance each other out.
I can’t fully disagree with her. She’s right but then why doesn’t she like feminism, what she’s saying is exactly what feminism is all about right? She believes in equality and equal opportunity for girls. In fact I’m the only child and my parents have heard a lot of… oh god just one girl? You should try for another Baby. What people meant was try for a son. But my parents were always very proud of everything that I ever achieved. They always encouraged me on everything. But despite all these things, I’m not sure if my dad would call himself a feminist.
Feminism in many forms have even become a taboo for some people. They might not to sexist or patriarchal. They just don’t understand the true meaning of the word. So let me tell you what feminism is not. It’s not about dominance of one gender and suppression of the other gender. It’s about equality and justice.
It’s about women getting the things they deserve not because they are qualified females but because they are qualified humans. They deserve to be treated the right way and so are men.
Let’s talk about chelvery now. Do you think chilvery have decreased? Let’s take an example of a normal the metro train. The first bogey is reserved for ladies but what about the rest of the bogeys? There are some seats reserved for the ladies there as well. Most of the times they can’t use it though and that’s not how it’s supposed to be. But there are some times, when there is a reason why there are men sitting there. Maybe there is an old man sitting there or someone who’s very depressed or very tired. Have we ever thought about that? There is always a flip side to the coin. Let’s elaborate that with an example of a middle aged man who is returning home after doing overtime to pay his daughter’s college fee. A group of young women are travelling in the same metro. This man is sitting on the seat reserved for ladies and one of the girls point that out and in the name of feminism asks him to give his seat to her. Do you think that’s the right use of the word feminism? Do you think the girl is being fair on the poor guy? Ask yourself that. What I feel is if we are able to stand and travel then why ask middle aged *men* to stand up? That’s how girls themselves make the meaning of feminism twisted and blurred. What would that man feel after being publicly humiliated and insulted. I don’t think he’d have a positive attitude toward feminism and we shouldn’t blame him.