RingChen

So asked Barkha Dutt in ‘We - The People’ last night in NDTV. She also said that most of the women, when asked this question, will answer, “No, I am not a feminist, BUT…”

The only thing I concluded from that Gender Debate was that people in India, women particularly, are still confused as to what being a feminist means. The dictionary meaning of this term seems to be: a person with a belief in the social, political, and economic equality of the sexes. So why are we hesitant in declaring ourselves (mainly talking to the female of the sexes here) as being a feminist?

Because as said by Shabana Azmi, the notion of feminism is mainly related to the 60’s image of shreiking, bra-burning women who wanted men to be excluded from everything. She said that to this day, that notion still concots itself up whenever we talk about a feminist!

Because sex is a taboo word in our society and female sexuality is not exactly talked or cared about for that matter. Although we may have a more lenient attitude towards a girl child and her unbringing now than decades ago, she is still supposed to toe the line as per her husband’s wishes and so on. I’d like to see anyone deny this.

Because although we may have gained economic equality in our great country (to some extent) we’re still ages behind in gaining any other forms of equality as proved in real life. Otherwise why does female foeticide, dowry deaths and other moral crimes still prevail rampant?

If one is to truly be a feminist, one has to understand that the crux of the problem lies in the deep roots of the Indian society where the male child is naturally given preference over the girl child. To imagine the change the society where the mother tells her daughter, ‘This is not the way a girl should behave’ to the portrayal of the liberated woman, celebrating her sexuality prancing her stuff in lewd music vidoes, feminism has come a long way since.

To answer the quintessential question - Yes, I am a feminist because I do believe God created men & women to exist in harmony on earth and not for one gender to over-evaluate itself and wrestle control of the ‘Who’s-Superior’ mantle.

I am a feminist because I believe that reservation for women in any context will make sure more women will get the right seat, opportunity and a voice that will demand for the good of the common woman. There’s still a long way to go but hopefully we’ll get there someday. I put forth this question for all women in the meantime.