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A mother writes a heart-felt letter to her son post the #MeToo movement, telling him to respect women and grow up to be a responsible individual.
Dear son,
This letter comes from a mother who is a woman first. I wonder where did we go wrong as women because it took us few centuries and a Tanushree Dutta to realize that this is not normal. The hands brushing our breast. Those glares at the bra strap peeping through the shirt. The cleavage when the dupatta goes too high. Taking us for granted if at a party our skirt is too short or the lipstick too red or when we hold our glasses in our hands with dignity and not guilt.
It also comes from a woman who believes that fault is not entirely ours. The men who were raised by women like us missed a few words in the dictionary while growing up. Respect and Consent.
Here is where my role as a mother becomes of utmost importance. I can’t give back, what was taken away from a generation of women, but I can very well save the coming one by doing my bit.
Son, respect your peers, your elders, the ones younger to you and the ones weaker than you. That shall be your strength.
And learn to accept a NO. Absorb it in your system with grace and not let your ego tell you otherwise.
Also my son, don’t change for the world. Don’t change to be accepted because my fear is not for the girls, because women of this country can very well take care of themselves.
My fear is I don’t want #metoo to be followed by a #hetoo.
Don’t be submissive because the waves of change are too strong. Don’t lose your respect on the path of following a prototype. Also, do not give in, to be blamed for the scars that you haven’t caused. Let your voice be yours. And let it not be maligned.
Son, you can protect others only if you learn to stand up for yourself first.
And remember, I am always here from where you took your flight.
Love
Maa.
Image Source: Pixabay
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This post has published with none or minimal editorial intervention. Women's Web is an open platform that publishes a diversity of views, individual posts do not necessarily represent the platform's views and opinions at all times.
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Dear Women’s Web Community Member,
You may have wondered at our being on the quieter side during the last couple of months. Thank you for your patience, and we wanted to come back to you with a detailed note on what’s been happening at our end of things.
When we first began Women’s Web, as a blog from one woman’s desk along with a few like-minded souls, little could we have imagined the heights that it would soar to. Over the years, Women’s Web has published over 20000 stories (almost all by women), empowered countless women with the ideas, community and resources to chase their dreams, employed hundreds of women in core and project-based roles, and in the process, emerged as the OG women’s community in India. It has also inspired many others to build communities of a similar nature, all enabling women (and other-underrepresented groups) in their own ways.
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