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I’ve seen lots of posts where people write about why they are feminist. I thought I’d do something similar. So, I wrote a list. Ten short points – although there are other reasons I’m a feminist as well.
1. Killing infant females is not culture.
2. Aborting foetuses because they have vaginas is messed up.
3. MARITAL RAPE IS RAPE.
4. Burning/torturing a woman because she didn’t pay enough dowry is a violation of human rights.
5. Being denied education because you are female is disgusting.
6. Slut shaming (or woman-hating) is never acceptable.
7. Being blamed for rape is NOT ok.
8. “You’re such a girl” is considered an insult.
9. Acid is thrown on women’s faces because they refused a proposal.
10. There are more than two genders.
I end my piece with these words:
Read point three again. And again. Ughhhh.
Pic credit: Sigurdas (Used under a Creative Commons license)
Brought up in a patriarchal society, but not a misogynist.
Bravo. Bang-on.
I might want to add. ” A woman should not be defined my marriage and marriage not by dowry.” Wonderful and crisp!
I would like to add one more reason as to why I am a feminist.I am a feminist because I support complete individuality of a woman irrespective of her culture and family(especially in India’s context).Her life is her life.I am eagerly longing for the day when a woman will be seen as a human being and not as a woman.Not sure whether I will be able to witness that day in my lifespan or not.But even if it is one day before I die,I would not die more peacefully.
Wise that you went to the root in your first point Archismita. The prime reason for all worse treatment of women is imbalanced sex ratio – if at all we want to see this more scientifically. Your point one’s something which most of people conveniently forget. If somebody connects just the data where there is a balance in sex ratio and with decent literacy rate, crimes against women would be reasonably far less. There’s certainly no going away for men from women and vice versa. Its sad that a class called feminists must exist to protect interests of women. Interests of women must be inherent part of social fabric
@MS It can be the other way round as well .In our country sex ratio is imbalanced because of the misogyny.There isn’t misogyny because of low sex ratio.The root of all evil is there is a lack of respect for women in our culture partly because of our religion and partly because of people’s reluctance towards changing their attitudes towards females.Delhi has got a decent literacy rate but still it is very unsafe for women.And yes it is sad that feminism exists because ideally we should not be needing it.We need them because these people make us aware of our rights.We are brought up in a deeply patriarchial society and hence these patriarchical concepts gets embedded in our mind and we also start treating ourselves as second class citizens.These people make us realize that we have the right to choose what we want to choose.If every woman realizes her individuality and that she does not belongs to her family and culture then we do not need any feminism.
@Swati Very true – misogyny and resultant imbalance in sex ratio is a vicious cycle. I did not actually mean literacy in regular terms. Education is just a tool. Nothing stops school drop-out to be a person who respects women and a graduate from being a brute. I meant literacy from overall outlook of society towards fellow human beings.
Delhi is a shameful manifestation of disrespect towards women. It appears that larger patriarchal model is already gripped by fear of its growing non-significance. Patriarchal model is simply not able to digest this transformation by and large and attempt to inflict more pain to women. Every advanced society where women have gained equal rights and respect must have undergone this painful phase and feminists would indeed be good catalysts for such a transformation
It is NOT sad that feminism exists. It is sad that misogyny/patriarchy/sexism exists. Why be apologetic about feminism? It must exist everywhere because there is no other way.
Ironically, I became a feminist as a backlash reaction against the misogyny of the Indian culture which is practised by both men and women.
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