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"A woman's place is in the kitchen" - what else does Narendra Modi's remark about Sonia Gandhi say?
Do any of you remember that ‘modern girl’ in the movie Hum Aapke Hain Kaun, whose one major crime (besides wearing Western clothes) is that she cannot cook to save her life and hence falls far short of being the Adarsh Bharatiya Naari?
Well, I haven’t seen that movie for some 20 years, so I could be getting it all wrong, but I seemed to remember that as her besetting sin. Can’t cook? No Salman Khan for you!
Turns out that 20 years now, a woman’s place is still in the kitchen, and anyone woman who cannot cook, is surely lacking in some way, never mind if she is the President of a major political party.
Why exactly did Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi single out Congress President Sonia Gandhi, saying that “She does not know how to run a kitchen. If she knew, she would not have allowed capping of LPG cylinders. Indian women, who run kitchens, are suffering.” Why not point out that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh does not know to run a kitchen? Or that (then) Petroleum Minister Jaipal Reddy does not know to run a kitchen?
It is possible that his logic is that Sonia Gandhi is responsible for every government decision (and yes, policies do flow from the Party to the Government), but who else detects a strong whiff of misogyny here? Would he have made this remark if the President of the Congress was not a woman? There is nothing wrong in pointing out the errors in the Congress’ actions, but the basis for them is not that Sonia Gandhi cannot run a kitchen (and surely, Modi does not run his kitchen himself, but still manages to understand housewives’ suffering? Oh I forgot, he happens to be a man!)
No doubt Modi thought he was being very clever, but Mr. Modi, a woman needs to be a cook only if she plans to be a chef. Otherwise, she can pretty much be anything she wants to be, and no, understanding petroleum product pricing is not contingent on one’s kitchen running abilities. Perhaps its time for Sonia Gandhi to do a Julia Gillard, not that any politician in this country would have that kind of courage.
Pic credit: Mike Willis (Used under a Creative Commons license)
Founder & Chief Editor of Women's Web, Aparna believes in the power of ideas and conversations to create change. She has been writing since she was ten. In another life, she used to be read more...
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UP Boards Topper Prachi Nigam was trolled on social media for her facial hair; our obsession with appearance is harsh on young minds.
Prachi Nigam’s photo has been doing the rounds on social media for the right reasons. Well, scratch that- I wish the above statement were true. This 15-year-old girl should ideally be revelling in her spectacular achievement of scoring a whopping 98.05% and topping her tenth-grade boards. But oddly enough, along with her marks, it’s something else that garners more attention – her facial hair.
While the trolls are driving themselves giddy by mocking this girl who hasn’t even completed her school yet, the ones who are taking her side are going one step ahead – they are sharing her photoshopped pictures, sans the facial hair, looking nothing less than a celebrity with captions saying – “Prachi Nigam, ten years later”.
Doctors have already diagnosed her with PCOD in their comments, based on photographic evidence. While we have names for people shamed for their weight – body shaming, for their skin colour- racism, for their age- age shaming, for being a female- sexism, this category of shaming where one faces criticism for their appearance has no name. With that, it also has zero shame attached to it.
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