Being Her

In most men, here I don’t quantify how big, but there lies a chauvinist, which dictates his conscience how he is better of the two genders. It’s not a general implication that I am placing most men in this category but just an instinct I am drawing attention to.

It’s a male dominated society whose perceptions and strength have forced a view of womanhood to be nothing, but a curse. So many years of evolution, so many years of independence but this country still possess an age old “suppress women” psyche. Here when she puts a question mark on her security, they put an exclamation mark or rather a full stop on her liberty. On her liberty to clothe herself, to move around, I am surprised they let her breathe without restriction.

It is the woman who gives birth. She is the one responsible for the continuation of the species. Without her, the newborn cannot hope to survive. How easily is this fact overlooked nowadays? What she is capable of feeling, both emotionally and physically, can’t be understood by men. She is made strong enough to endure the most painful task of giving birth.

But she is still quoted as the weaker of the two genders, why? Because she sheds tears? Or basically, because she is in a position to feel something so profound that Mr. I-Never-Cry can’t?

In India, the glorifying personification of womanhood, the Goddesses, are worshipped but the significance in existence of women, demeaned. Why the double standards? The partiality done between a baby in pink and the one in blue is known to us all. Determination of the gender of the foetus is a crime here while in western world it’s a ritual to know. Throughout history, women have fought for their rights in different societies of the world. But in India we are still fighting.

Since ages fairy tales have been passed down which portray beauty of womanhood. It has always been our culture, human culture, to respect women. It’s just been forgotten today, deliberately or inadvertently is not an issue, that it needs to be imbibed into everyone’s heart and soul is.

Mihika Naik
Y14 Undergraduate, The LNMIIT