I happened to be watching a portion of a CNN interview of a feminist
play writer who was talking about her ideas of feminism and about her play. She
was of the opinion that women are often expected to behave in a certain manner
and this needs to stop. While speaking, she herself was blushing, laughing,
shying, being chatty - all traits someone could put into "feminine"
traits. But the question is, is that something which should make her ashamed
of? I don't think so. If her natural instinct asks her to be like that, she has
freedom to be like that. But if we go deeper, the reason she was behaving like
that was perhaps the traits she had picked up from other females including her
mother and other members of the community. That is the natural way kids pickup
behaviors and some of those behaviors stick with them for life. Is that
something wrong? Of course not. If the behaviors picked up by kids were not
aligned with their inner self, their natural self, then in due course of time
those kids would abandon those traits and go the way they want to go.
Therefore, a naturally extrovert kid who lived amongst introverts and hence
remained silent most of the time, can go back being extrovert at some stage of
her life when she gets the right environment. It is difficult to make someone
eat salty food for whole life if the natural instinct of the person dislikes it
and the person has a sweet tooth.
At some point, we should also think about why there are so many
writers, poets and journalists who are giving us so much free lessons on
feminism. But wait, are those lessons really for free? While pushing their
agenda, are they not trying to make us buy their newspapers, magazines, books
or watch their TV shows or movies? Looking from this angle, this whole feminism
business becomes a "marketing exercise".
I truly believe in the freedom of an individual. Each individual, be it
a man or a woman should have right to live his or her life with dignity, making
one's own choices. But beyond a level, these champions of a certain line of
feminism do not allow men and women to think or act on their own. When these
feminists teach us what not to be; they are in a way teaching us what to be -
and thereby violating the free spirit.
At some level, these feminist writers must also be mediocre and
insecure. Taking a parallel with politics; is this not true that only weak and
insecure politicians try to use people's caste, race or linguistic identity to
play a kind of "identity politics"? That is true; if Barack Obama
exerts his "black" ethnicity, he is trying to pass on the message to
all the black skinned people that they must not use their brains to decide
which candidate or party is better; but they should just vote for him due to
the singular reason that he is "black". This is how the divisive
identity politics works. And this is also the way these feminists try to swing
public opinion in their advantage.
I remember the time when a so called "feminist" Bollywood
movie called "Pink" was released in India. Women were hoarded inside
cinema theatre, there was a huge marketing campaign, and women were seen going
to the movie theatres wearing "pink". The movie's promoters had tried
to encourage the idea and pressurize women to believe that they must watch this
movie, not because it was a good movie, but just because it was a feminist
movie. It is obvious that if movie makers were able to sell this idea, they
would need not focus and work hard on the quality of the movie; they just had
to do more marketing. Therefore, such a trend to sell mediocre products in the
garb of feminism is a kind of dirty little business.
I truly believe that that people should be using their own conscience
to make their own decisions and these feminists are a kind of moral police who
try to control people's minds into making them think like they want them to
think. There is a saying that if you fight a demon long enough, you would
become a demon yourself. Similarly, radical feminists become just another kind
of species like male-chauvinists are. And women should be watchful to avoid
such radicals getting control of their minds.
- Rahul Tiwary
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