Check out 16 Return-To-Work Programs In India For Ambitious Women Like You!
It is at times like when I get misogynistic comments from those who I think are friends, that I tell myself why I am a feminist. A personal POV.
I work. I earn for myself. I speak. I have a voice that I raise when I see an injustice. I write. I find opportunities to express myself and I use my words to cut through these.
I love. I express love. I express my needs and wants. I can demand my rights.
I can do all this because women before me fought. They fought hard. They took to streets to demand a say. The voting. The economic rights. The social rights. They stamped their feet down in protest and stood there without fearing for their own lives till someone took notice.
And because of them, I stand firm on the ground despite it being perpetually shaky. Because it still quakes under me, often, reminding me that the journey isn’t over. That I still have to empower myself in many ways by throwing off the shackles of internalized misogyny and years of conditioning. Consciously. One angry moment at a time. One thoughtful moment at a time. One debate at a time. And sometimes one toxic relation at a time.
I am a feminist for all those little girls and boys who are looking at a new world, who are trying to make their own place.
I am a feminist because those little girls and boys still have to be told that you don’t belong to the kitchen or to the husbands, that you can cry and be sensitive without being scolded or beaten up for being sissies, if that’s not what you want. You belong to the skies. You deserve to be respected.
I am a feminist for all those women who are still bound by the chains of patriarchy.
I am a feminist so that I can use my position to fight for them, to give their stories a voice, to bring them to the fore, so that they can also have their rights without anyone else ‘allowing’ them anything.
I am a feminist because we still have to fight for silly stereotypical things that create a huge opaque wall between opportunities and vision.
I am a feminist for those women who died fighting for my rights.
I am a feminist. We need more of them. Raise your voices.
Image source: pixabay
Writes about feminism, books, food and social issues ! read more...
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.
Stay updated with our Weekly Newsletter or Daily Summary - or both!
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.
Please enter your email address