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March 2, 2016

Does The Hoopla Around International Women’s Day Do Any Good?

Is there more to Women's Day And Mother's Day than lip service and the sale of items in pink and bling?

kanika

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Is there more to Women’s Day And Mother’s Day than lip service and the sale of items in pink and bling?
We will soon celebrate International Women’s Day and then Mother’s Day. On each such occasion there is some question about the point of such celebrations. Do they serve a purpose? Does any good come from these media hyped days? Does it really help bring about gender equality or improve the lives of  women and mothers? Does it have any impact at all on those who don’t believe women deserve respect and equality in society? Or is it just an occasion for greeting card companies and restaurants to mint money?

So why celebrate these days?

I gave the matter some thought. Social changes are not easy. Social inertia is massive and it resists change. The feminist movement originated over 150 years ago and subtle forms of gender bias are still prevalent, even in some developed countries. Social change needs all the help it can get.
What, then, does celebrating International Women’s day and mothers day, do? Nothing dramatic really. But very slowly it makes the idea of gender equality more acceptable. For a generation growing up celebrating such days, gender equality may seem like a more natural concept than it did to the previous generation.

The familiar becomes popular

People are creatures of habit and upbringing. They are comfortable with what is familiar. If celebrating these days makes the concept of gender equality more popular, or helps just a few people realize that something they say or do is gender biased and correct themselves, or makes a few people opposed to gender equality ever so slightly uncomfortable, it has served some purpose.

Giving hope

The other purpose it possibly serves, is to give hope to at least a few of the large number of oppressed women. They may or may not see the end of their oppression in their lifetime, but the celebrations tell them that they deserve respect and equality and if they chose to fight for it, they would be right. It tells them, that they are valued members of society, even if their family does not think so, and that can be a source of strength.
Many may not succeed in fighting the oppression but the celebrations may inspire them to quietly strive for their daughters and look forward to the day their daughters can partake in the celebrations.

Honouring those women who brought us till here

Women’s day and Mother’s day also celebrate the efforts of people over the years that have struggled and fought to make society less gender biased. So, if you already believe in gender equality and consider the celebration to be frivolous or redundant, think of it as a day honoring the efforts of those who go us here. Or celebrate by giving to a charity that helps poor or oppressed women gain self sufficiency, or educates children, etc to further the cause of gender equality.
Change comes in excruciatingly small steps but anything that helps even a little to bring about change for the better is worth a try.
Do some people try to capitalize on these occasions to make money? Of course they do. But at least they spread the word. Even if their ad campaigns are self serving, they have the side effect of making gender equality a more popular and acceptable idea. And as gender equality becomes popular and widely accepted then any form of gender bias stands out and is much harder to practice.

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About the Author

kanika

Kanika G, a physicist by training and a mother of 2 girls, started writing to entertain her older daughter with stories, thus opening the flood gates on a suppressed passion. Today she has written over read more...

101 Posts | 441,436 Views

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Feminist
April 23, 2024

There Is A Prachi In All Of Us! Why, As A Society, Can’t We Look Beyond Appearance?

UP Boards Topper Prachi Nigam was trolled on social media for her facial hair; our obsession with appearance is harsh on young minds.

Anjali Paul

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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