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Feminism is still a very tabooed word in our country, without people realizing the importance of the concept, or even the true meaning of it.
We live in a country where the word feminism is not always used in a positive connotation, saying “I’m a feminist” has given me more eye rolls than smiles.
It’s an extremely overused word; people casually throw it around, too. So what exactly is ‘feminism’, I’ll try to jot down what I mean when I say I’m a ‘feminist’.
It’s about all genders having equal rights and opportunities. It’s about not trying to prove that one gender is superior to the other. We are all aware of the male dominance that’s still prevalent in our society.
People still look down on you if you’re a woman. You have to demand equal pay, equal rights, and equal treatment.
Now, to me, this fight itself is absurd. Imagine overlooking everything and having a preconceived notion in your mind that if she’s a woman, she must be good in certain things and not others.
It’s a very simple explanation.
The world started with men and women. When humans were hunter-gatherers, they came down to a conclusion that since men are stronger physically and can endure more, they would go look for food, do all the physical work, and provide for the family unit.
The woman would look after the family, cook, and are emotionally evolved; hence they can look after the family better.
This was the entire concept back then. Nothing more, nothing less. Now, over the years, people still use this convenient excuse. Instead of evolving with time, they kept on looking down on women.
We’ve always seen that a ‘homemaker’ is taking care of the entire house, but is dismissed since they’re not making money out of it.
When it is a choice, it’s amazing if you want to take care of your family, and the man wants to provide. But what if it’s not like that?
People should be ‘open’ to new ideas, and be more respectful to people’s choices. We should be smashing the stereotypical gender roles and making the world a better place.
The world is still unfair to women, and it can’t be denied; there’s no debate about it.
The abuse, harassment, constant objectification, and limiting women to their looks by still using cat phrases like ‘beauty with brains’ as a compliment implies that if a woman is beautiful and smart, it’s a big deal.
Men fool around saying ‘don’t act like a woman’ when referring to weakness. By saying that, they reinstate the fact that women are weak.
It’s just sick.
So when I go on talking about feminism, and proudly say that I’m a feminist. I get more eye rolls than smiles. Why? Because people think stereotypical feminists are the male-bashing, head-shaving types.
When all we want is to make the world a better place for every single person and to be given equal opportunities.
Hence, all of us should be feminists.
Image source: Povozniuk via Getty Images, free on CanvaPro
Previously published here
A Journalist, Editor, Cinephile, Music enthusiast. I write about pop culture, social issues and primarily advocate for women’s rights through my writings. You can check out more from me @YouthKiAwaaz/Ishikasatwikasingh read more...
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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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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