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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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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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