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The passed down advice of "proper conduct" that needs a conscious, social makeover.
The passed down advice of “proper conduct” that needs a conscious, social makeover.
A daughter receives a mirror from her mother that her own mother had gifted her on the occasion of her wedding. Along with the mirror, she receives the baggage of a set of instructions on how to conduct herself in society. Read on to know how she deals with them.
She peers into the gilded mirror, Vintage, a family heirloom. Eons ago mother came to her room And handed granny’s wedding gift to her, Instructions embedded in the polished silver, Society’s protocol for lissome girls’ demeanor: They should be beautiful, prim and proper.
Stacks of fairness creams and conditioners, For her dusky skin and frizzy hair; A corset, a pantyhose, and a bra underwire, To shape the defiant youthful body going haywire, Red lipstick and a thick dash of eyeliner, Pretty dresses to charm the most eligible bachelor- Was the legacy she received from concerned aunts and sisters.
Between layers of expensive cosmetics, Still flourished the girl’s intelligence, The stigma of thick-framed spectacles; Couldn’t stunt her passion for books, Crows feet and love handles thrived, Diminishing her chances of getting hitched, Yet she refused to fluff herself with silicon and botox!
The dusty mirror is clogged with cobwebs, Of generations of frantic early morning visits, The stench of stale notions still lingers- Though she’s discarded the baggage of social duress, She’s retained the pale, cracked looking glass; As a trophy for her perfect imperfection, Because dusk is her constant companion.
Image source: Unsplash
Curious about anything and everything. Proud to be born a woman. Spiritual, not religious. Blogger, author, poet, educator, counselor. 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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