I have never considered myself as a Feminist (I still don’t), But recent events vis-a-vis the Buzzfeed article of "Why India needs Feminism" and some personal and public incidents made me study the "Word" a bit more.
Growing up reading Ayn Rand, I was always an individualistic (read: Selfish, according to Indian standards). I have always been labeled selfish by friends, love-interest/husband, sisters etc. and I didn’t mind, because I understood where they came from and somehow knew where I stand. Anyway this note isn’t about justifications of whom and why I am the way I am. This note is just an effort to understand the big shot words used in philosophy/literature like Feminism, Objectivism, Individualism etc.(And a minor effort to get over the Writer's block I have since last two years)
So starting from the title of the note- "The Curse of Eve"
The Bible says that the pain of Childbirth is the curse of Eve for tasting the forbidden fruit.
God tells Eve
"... I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee." (Genesis 3:16)
Seems like an Anti-Feminist statement, but then I am no expert on religion and maybe it has some deeper meaning. Maybe it means God is blessing Eve with the joy of multiple children.
But the same phrase "Curse of Eve" can be extrapolated to many other incidents in recent past.
The foremost among them is the Dec-2012 "Nirbhaya case" and the subsequent silly remarks passed on by people who run the country. Agreed, she got the support of millions of people who came on the street to support her, but it also revealed the hypocritical side of us. Its been a long time but the wounds will maybe never heal and the verdict wasn’t satisfactory either, with the juvenile all set to walk free just because he wasn’t considered mature based on age limit, not on his acts. I am aware of the entire hullabaloo about it by Human Rights but considering the Law situation in our country, everyone knows the outcome anyway. I wonder if a country which lives by its rich heritage and epics like "Mahabharata" and "ramayana" knows the following text from Mahabharata in Sambhava Parv which explains why the God of Justice was born as Vidura. It is a conversation between the "God of Justice" and a Rishi called "Ani- Mandavya" who is wrongly implicated in a robbery case and suffers. He asks the "God of Justice" the reason for his suffering and the God replies thus-
"The God of justice, thus questioned, replied, 'O thou of ascetic wealth, a little insect was once pierced by thee on a blade of grass. Thou bearest now the consequence of the act. O Rishi, as a gift, however small, multiplieth in respect of its religious merits, so a sinful act multiplieth in respect of the woe it bringeth in its train.' On hearing this, Ani-Mandavya asked, 'O tell me truly when this act was committed by me. Told in reply by the god of justice that he had committed it, when a child, the Rishi said, 'That shall not be a sin which may be done by a child up to the twelfth year of his age from birth. The scriptures shall not recognise it as sinful. The punishment thou hast inflicted on me for such a venial offence hath been disproportionate in severity. The killing of a Brahmana involves a sin that is heavier than the killing of any other living being. Thou shall, therefore, O god of justice; have to be born among men even in the Sudra order. And from this day I establish this limit in respect of the consequence of acts that an act shall not be sinful when committed by one below the age of fourteen. But when committed by one above that age, it shall be regarded as sin.'
Even the epic decides the age of maturity at 14 and not 18.But sadly; when with the advent of technology children are exposed to all that’s good and bad and hence mature faster, we still stick to an age limit to decide someone’s maturity.
Bottom-line- Justice will remain denied to a woman because of age old laws drafted during British era.
Recently again, Preity Zinta filed a case against her ex-boyfriend for molestation and yet again, our hypocritical society had some jabs to take at her. Just google her name, and we have many insensitive remarks about her on Twitter, Facebook etc. Even women claiming that she doesn’t have a right to raise a voice just coz she was in relationship with him. Only time, a lot of power-play and money will decide who did what, but what I am against is the mentality to judge a woman based on her relationships and status. It’s a bifurcated road, women in villages are killed and hung on trees because they cannot do anything, and when a woman who can do something raises her voice, she is ridiculed at. Preity's case is sufficient evidence against why India as a country will never understand the concept of Marital rape thousands of women will continue to suffer because they are bound by marriage to devils. All this is enough to turn even the most neutral person (me) into a Feminist.
On a lighter note, I still am not sure if I am a Feminist or not, I still don’t like to fall into debates with people over Women's rights, I just fight over Individual rights and subsequently get chastised for my strong sense of right or wrong and inability to mould according to circumstances. A quality everyone around me reminds me to adapt if I have to be happy, but I can’t. I still have many unanswered questions-
1. Does being very aware of my rights make me a feminist? Just because I am a girl?
2. Does refusing to be stereotyped into a role of a wife/daughter and sticking to cooking and taking up all house responsibilities alone, not trying to be superwoman make me a Feminist?
3. Does believing that a husband shares the work equally (which mine does thankfully!) make me a Feminist?
4. Does deciding to not change my name/identity post marriage, make me a Feminist?
5. Does filing my own ITR and managing my own finances (badly I accept) make me a Feminist?
I think not, because these are things any individual will do irrespective of gender. So in my effort to label myself as someone other than "Selfish" I become aware of my surroundings start connecting things and just being aware of the injustice and the hypocritical nature of society makes me a feminist.
That reminds me- The Great Indian Stereotype of things an Indian Women is cast into.
The list goes such-
Growing up reading Ayn Rand, I was always an individualistic (read: Selfish, according to Indian standards). I have always been labeled selfish by friends, love-interest/husband, sisters etc. and I didn’t mind, because I understood where they came from and somehow knew where I stand. Anyway this note isn’t about justifications of whom and why I am the way I am. This note is just an effort to understand the big shot words used in philosophy/literature like Feminism, Objectivism, Individualism etc.(And a minor effort to get over the Writer's block I have since last two years)
So starting from the title of the note- "The Curse of Eve"
The Bible says that the pain of Childbirth is the curse of Eve for tasting the forbidden fruit.
God tells Eve
"... I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee." (Genesis 3:16)
Seems like an Anti-Feminist statement, but then I am no expert on religion and maybe it has some deeper meaning. Maybe it means God is blessing Eve with the joy of multiple children.
But the same phrase "Curse of Eve" can be extrapolated to many other incidents in recent past.
The foremost among them is the Dec-2012 "Nirbhaya case" and the subsequent silly remarks passed on by people who run the country. Agreed, she got the support of millions of people who came on the street to support her, but it also revealed the hypocritical side of us. Its been a long time but the wounds will maybe never heal and the verdict wasn’t satisfactory either, with the juvenile all set to walk free just because he wasn’t considered mature based on age limit, not on his acts. I am aware of the entire hullabaloo about it by Human Rights but considering the Law situation in our country, everyone knows the outcome anyway. I wonder if a country which lives by its rich heritage and epics like "Mahabharata" and "ramayana" knows the following text from Mahabharata in Sambhava Parv which explains why the God of Justice was born as Vidura. It is a conversation between the "God of Justice" and a Rishi called "Ani- Mandavya" who is wrongly implicated in a robbery case and suffers. He asks the "God of Justice" the reason for his suffering and the God replies thus-
"The God of justice, thus questioned, replied, 'O thou of ascetic wealth, a little insect was once pierced by thee on a blade of grass. Thou bearest now the consequence of the act. O Rishi, as a gift, however small, multiplieth in respect of its religious merits, so a sinful act multiplieth in respect of the woe it bringeth in its train.' On hearing this, Ani-Mandavya asked, 'O tell me truly when this act was committed by me. Told in reply by the god of justice that he had committed it, when a child, the Rishi said, 'That shall not be a sin which may be done by a child up to the twelfth year of his age from birth. The scriptures shall not recognise it as sinful. The punishment thou hast inflicted on me for such a venial offence hath been disproportionate in severity. The killing of a Brahmana involves a sin that is heavier than the killing of any other living being. Thou shall, therefore, O god of justice; have to be born among men even in the Sudra order. And from this day I establish this limit in respect of the consequence of acts that an act shall not be sinful when committed by one below the age of fourteen. But when committed by one above that age, it shall be regarded as sin.'
Even the epic decides the age of maturity at 14 and not 18.But sadly; when with the advent of technology children are exposed to all that’s good and bad and hence mature faster, we still stick to an age limit to decide someone’s maturity.
Bottom-line- Justice will remain denied to a woman because of age old laws drafted during British era.
Recently again, Preity Zinta filed a case against her ex-boyfriend for molestation and yet again, our hypocritical society had some jabs to take at her. Just google her name, and we have many insensitive remarks about her on Twitter, Facebook etc. Even women claiming that she doesn’t have a right to raise a voice just coz she was in relationship with him. Only time, a lot of power-play and money will decide who did what, but what I am against is the mentality to judge a woman based on her relationships and status. It’s a bifurcated road, women in villages are killed and hung on trees because they cannot do anything, and when a woman who can do something raises her voice, she is ridiculed at. Preity's case is sufficient evidence against why India as a country will never understand the concept of Marital rape thousands of women will continue to suffer because they are bound by marriage to devils. All this is enough to turn even the most neutral person (me) into a Feminist.
On a lighter note, I still am not sure if I am a Feminist or not, I still don’t like to fall into debates with people over Women's rights, I just fight over Individual rights and subsequently get chastised for my strong sense of right or wrong and inability to mould according to circumstances. A quality everyone around me reminds me to adapt if I have to be happy, but I can’t. I still have many unanswered questions-
1. Does being very aware of my rights make me a feminist? Just because I am a girl?
2. Does refusing to be stereotyped into a role of a wife/daughter and sticking to cooking and taking up all house responsibilities alone, not trying to be superwoman make me a Feminist?
3. Does believing that a husband shares the work equally (which mine does thankfully!) make me a Feminist?
4. Does deciding to not change my name/identity post marriage, make me a Feminist?
5. Does filing my own ITR and managing my own finances (badly I accept) make me a Feminist?
I think not, because these are things any individual will do irrespective of gender. So in my effort to label myself as someone other than "Selfish" I become aware of my surroundings start connecting things and just being aware of the injustice and the hypocritical nature of society makes me a feminist.
That reminds me- The Great Indian Stereotype of things an Indian Women is cast into.
The list goes such-
- Women can’t decide which car to buy- I remember an incident where a friend (now husband) remarked that I will buy a car if they market it with a feature of "lipstick box" in glove box additional. It was said in fun, but u know where it comes from. So screw my degree in Mechanical Engineering, my decision making power, I cannot make rational decisions, apparently.
- Women cannot be good drivers. A deep rooted stereotype, that needs to go. I know some women who are the safest drivers compared to men I know, but saying so will hurt the Male ego, so I cannot say that I believe my sister is a better driver than You-know-who ;-)
- Recently, got cyber-bullied, coz I expressed my opinion about Football and was praised for my "abundance" knowledge of Football (sarcastically of course) by a stranger! Well, I chose to ignore (Did I?) and chose to not remark on bad English, but made me realize the stereotype. Just coz I am a girl, I cannot know Football. Irrespective of the fact that I have followed every world cup since I was ten and every League match, I cannot know enough. And I wasn’t bizarre enough to say that "Oh! Portugal should have won the World Cup! Ronaldo is so handsome!" What I said made sense; Netherlands played really well throughout the world cup and in my opinion deserved a place in finals. But no! I cannot say that Sir, without being rudely laughed at. I would have let go of the incident as just cyber bullying, but deep inside I know it comes down to Feminism. Just like a 12th Pass Smriti Irani cannot be a HRD minister, but an uneducated person can be rail minister or even PM.
