Fundamentals of Feminism
When I was a young girl, I wanted to be a free bird. Maybe till today, I wish for freedom the most, economically or in personal space. I feel it is one of the most basic requirements of a human being. But growing up, I realised we girls are somewhere, missing out on a lot of things. As in? The freedom to walk around empty roads after 10 p.m. without any hesitation or fear, the freedom to have equal education, the freedom to wear whatever we want without any fear of getting harassed, we were missing out on it all. And most importantly, we never noticed it, we thought it was fine, we were supposed to be like that, we were supposed to get married before 18; we were supposed to do the chores, we were supposed not to have dreams; and we were supposed to maintain patriarchal social standards. But aren't we humans? Aren't we supposed to have equal rights, emotions, and freedom ? I thought about it, a lot. The discrimination between men and women used to disgust me often, sometimes sad. And then I got to know about feminism, may be something I needed the most.
A lot have misperceptions about feminism. They think it's all about women ruling the world and men being underprivileged . The funny thing is, men here are afraid of the same discrimination we women have been tolerating and adapting to for years. However, feminism is not like this, it was never like that. Feminism, is an idea of equity. It's not about walking through the streets half naked, it's not about smoking cigarettes, it's not about any of that. It simply means, the opportunities you get as a man and dont get questioned, we also deserve and want that. It's not the battle against men, but it's a way or an idea to establish our basic human rights in this patriarchal society. You may ask, then why is it feminism and not equality ? Why do we put emphasis on women ? You see, when we talk about a discriminatory problem, we always address it with those who are lagging behind. Like poverty, it's a rich-poor discriminatory situation, and we address the issue of the underprivileged because we want to put emphasis on them, their problems, and their rights. Just the same way here, we women are the deprived ones, this is why I guess it is feminism. A lot of
mysogynists think and claim that feminism is basically women over men, but we never want that, we want, the basics, the basics we deserve. Although the 'feminist memes ' are all over the internet on 21st century but the idea is not new at all, it originated in the late 18th century in Europe through movements where women had the aim of establishing political and economic rights, and breaking
gender stereotypes. And by time, the more women got educated, the more they got concerned about how they had been treated for years after years. The idea of feminism triggers a lot of
alpha men, and even some mysogynist females too. They think it's bullshit, men are supposed to earn the bread, women are supposed to cook, and that's how it should be, that's how it has been for years and centuries. This is where the patriarchy won; they even made the suppressed women believe they do have a boundary. They do have to 'take permission' from a male authority before getting a job, they do have to ask the man before stepping out of the house after 8 p.m. But luckily, there are a lot of men and women out there who are actually acknowledging the issues and raising their voices. From Emma Watson, Ryan Gosling, Harry Styles to Dhruv Rathee from our neighbouring country, all are feminists. You don't need to be a woman, to be a feminist. When you see the issue, your conscience should be telling you to be it. You need to support the idea of equity, equal rights. That's a very basic thing you can do as a normal person. It's not a threat; it never was. It was always
meant to create a world together where no gender is less than the other one. You may hate it and want it removed, but know that we want that too. We do dream of a world where we don't need phrases like feminism to mention the oppressed. We want a happy, normal, fearless life where we can easily step out after 8 p.m. without the constant feeling that we may not be able to go back home that day, where we get job opportunities equally without being questioned, where we do not cry in the bathroom for hours remembering our first bad touch, where we do not become codependent for some food and shelter. May the world heal soon. May both women and men get the life they deserve.
Sec : 27
ID : 24315040
Comments
Post a Comment