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When a woman steps out of the box society tries to trap her in, society is at a loss as to how to react. More power to these women!
“We love our boys and we raise our girls.”
This observation was made by Michelle Obama at the first-ever Obama Foundation Summit in Chicago. An observation that is better reflected in Indian society.
The fundamental element of difference in the way men and women are raised, that society tends to overlook, is that restrictions are not only placed on what we do, but who we are.
Since childhood, we are shoved into a box as narrow as their mentality and told to grow to fit it, never to cross the borders of its confinement. Our path is set for us, with rules and traits like power-ups to collect along the way to adulthood. And we carry into this adulthood these internalized way of being, a road you cannot venture from, the route you take to be a woman worthy of approval.
The belief that ‘women’ and ‘responsibility’ go hand-in-hand directly or indirectly governs almost every aspect of a woman’s life. And society teaches us the wrong kind.
What they don’t teach you is that there are plenty of parts to take.
Womanhood is not a binary concept. It doesn’t exist in the monochromatic way they choose to see it. It is a tornado of strength and knowledge and determination. It is a palate for every woman’s way of being.
When a woman steps out of the box society tries to trap her in, she humanizes herself. And then society is forced to perceive her as a person rather than hips and a set of duties, which society then struggles to comprehend. They are fearful of what women can do when they find their own path. They fear what they can do when they realise their own strength and freedom. When they realise that they don’t have as much responsibility to everyone else as they do to themselves.
When they find themselves, they find all the power that comes with it.
Editor’s note: This post had been shortlisted for the August 2019 Muse of the Month contest, even though it wasn’t one of the five winners.
Image source: a still from the film Masaan
Professional dreamer, poet and artist. I teach children to read and write and they teach me everything else. read more...
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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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