What do people mean when they say they are feminists? And why do some shy away from calling themselves feminists? Is it because of the negative aspects associated with it? The word seems to have lost its relevance in this male dominated society._________________________________
by Alankrita Pandey
(April 05, Chennai, Sri Lanka Guardian) International Women’s Day is in close danger of becoming just another one of those days, wherein some ideals are brought out of the closet, speeches made, a few marches undertaken, protests made, tea and refreshments had and then the ideals carefully dusted away, not to see the light of day, till the next year. I will correct myself, it has become like that.
It has had an interesting history. Beginning with a very socialist base in 1909 in America, it became adopted by countries of the former Iron Curtain as a secular spring holiday and is now beginning to become just another one of those hallmark holidays with a few speeches and pretences at equality thrown in. And it is not because the day has lost its relevance. If anything, Women’s Day is far more relevant now than at any other time.
Somehow ‘Feminism’ has become a dirty word. I have absolutely no idea why it happened. Feminism is just the radical notion that men and women are equal. And claiming, often too proudly as a lot of women do, “I am no feminist,” is almost like agreeing that men are definitely the superior sex. Just a matter of semantics, you say. Because feminism is equated to the bra-burning (who in their right mind would or could burn that all-important garment, I do not know) set, or to the caricature of the chain-smoking, man-hating, hairy-legged lesbian. Not too attractive, the media tells us. Of course, it is another thing that feminine attractiveness is something entirely dictated by what big business decides will sell their products better. Notions of feminine attractiveness are so much foisted on us, by the opinions of others that they have even ceased to seem like shackles.
But, I digress. We were discussing why feminist is a dirty word. Then what about the other ‘f’ word? In my humble opinion, it is because the negatives associated with it are so great that people do not like the association, and they publicly rush to denounce it, without bothering to educate themselves about it. Rather like atheist, but that is another story. And there is the overwhelming apology, “Men and women have their innate differences but why on earth do we women apologise so much? For being thinking even existing.” It is ridiculous. Almost as if we were afraid of having our own thoughts because we need approval from the masculine half of humanity. Again a process of socialisation. Learned at Momma’s knee, “Say sorry for everything.” And so we keep on.
No one is denying the innate biological differences between men and women. But we are all part of the human species. Equal halves if anything else. Biologically that is. Because where hormones do not matter, as in matters of the mind, of tactile skill, or the law, all the human species are equal, especially under the law. Other differences are individual, not gender-specific.
Yet, women keep saying sorry. For daring to think they deserve an equal deal. And the few brave men (brave because they get a lot of uncomplimentary words, in a lot more derogatory ways), who try to stand up for women’s rights, needs to specify that its about equality, and not superiority. And superiority of a sex is really stupid concept, considering that unless we learn the secret of parthenogenesis, the human species would die out. As it would anyhow, if we let one sex bred out.
So feminism is not really bad. Actually, it is not sex-specific either. Men have been, are and can be feminists too. Revolutionary thought, isn’t it? John Stuart Mill was one of the earliest ones. He lent his name to Harriet Taylor to publish her essays on the subjugation of women (this was in the really dark ages, when women were not allowed to publish tracts, or even have the brains to do so. And it was not so long ago either). The point I am making is if it was good enough for Mill, surely it is good enough for a bunch of men now.
So now that we have reclaimed the ‘f’ word from the undeserved infamy it had, we can concentrate on matters of importance like how to establish a more ‘equal’ culture. Till then, keep repeating yourself, “Feminism is not a bad word.”
- Sri Lanka Guardian
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