We all are dealing with issues today in the world, and here is one that I would be highlighting today. Feminism is a term that may seem simple and has very clear meaning ,but is often misinterpreted by people at large. Feminism is the advocacy of women's rights on the ground of the equality of the sexes. Equality is what is emphasized upon . So, please note that there is nothing to be afraid about here. The point that feminism is not synonymous to man hating is crucial part of understanding feminism. It just means that have the guts to stand for equality. So, if you are a feminist ,no matter who you are just be proud of yourself because you stand for equality.
I believe that it's one's personal choice to decide how they want to lead their personal life. It's a woman's choice how she wants to lead her life , same way how a man chooses to do so. All that is resulting out of this is more difference of opinions between genders. The way world should see it is ,if any human is subjected to injustice, you don't need to judge the gender to fight for the person's justice. What I mean by this is , say someone named ABC undergoes a physical assault by XYZ group or person , it should be irrelevant ,if ABC belongs to this religion or that gender or any other parameter by which we stereotype people.
When a woman says "I can wear whatever I want', what she means is that, her way of dressing should in no way be judged to what kind of person she is , and that no limitation should be exercised on her. To give you an example, when we hear quotes like " you can be whatever you want to be" , logically we can become a terrorist ,or a social worker . But, the way we interpret it is that we can become anything good that we want to be. Every statement, logically has two sides .The maturity to take up the positive in any statement is needed the most in such times, instead of pointing fingers at each other. Why this point is being stressed is because in the crimes against a woman, the cause of the crime is interpreted that, the way in which a woman dresses has been associated to her character. This is bizarre. When a woman says that she can be involved in a physical relationship with anyone, it only means that she reserves the right to trust anyone with her body and soul. For example, in the nirbhaya case, most of the causes given as analysed by many for the horrendous act were that she was roaming in the night wearing modern clothes and she was with a boy who happened to be her friend. We have no right to judge a person, by what time they go out or what what they wear or with whom they go out. Whereas, the original cause was the inhuman mindset of some men.
Even if we somehow understand feminism we are afraid to come out of the traditional Indian closet. When we say feminism, the way I want everyone to see it is, a subset of society. If a particular subset of society ,being deprived of the rights and privileges that are enjoyed by the rest of the society, I believe, it's the responsibility of society at large to stand up for the equality of the particular subset. I call this "Humanism"(Please do not google this word.... it's a term I use only in this post). We judge people by their gender, clothes, religion and God knows what else. For a change, see a person as a person. All you need to be is "HUMAN" to stand for a human's rights. Finally to wrap up things , a pinch of sorcery from Daniel Radcliffe a.k.a Harry Potter - " I'm a feminist as much as I'm an egalitarian about everything and I believe in meritocracy. I think anyone who isn't at this point is swimming against the tide, just like people who are vaguely homophobic or racist or sexist". #Humanism
