By Sahil Gadhavi
Feminism has been a much contested word in the past two decades. It is not because the issue of sexism has suddenly escalated, no, it has always been there. However, in the past two decades women all over the world, especially the west, have really started protesting it. There have been attempts to compensate for the corrosive damage that sexism does to a human society. Happyho also provide best Meditation classes and yoga classes in Noida and Delhi NCR India area.
Sexism doesn’t affect women alone. Sexism, if you really think about it is a suppression of any feminine energy. Men and women both have a combination of feminine as well as masculine energies. It varies from person to person, the balance in which their natural tendencies tip towards either femininity or masculinity. For example, consider the way male and female children are treated differently from the get go. In most patriarchal societies, girls are encouraged, if not forced, to adhere to certain norms of dressing, to not go out when it’s late, to learn to cook and do house chores, speak softly, while boys are not really expected to live by any of these rules. When these girls grow up they reinforce these traditions on to their own children and the cycle continues. These traits are not just enforced in homes but in media as well. Most male heros of films are tough men, who never cry, rarely show emotions, are great at fighting, shoot guns, while female heroines are sensitive, they cry, they pine for the manly men, they need protection, basically, they are weak.
Sexism is so pervasive that it is like advertisement. It is everywhere you look. Hidden beneath a layer of normalcy. Only unlike advertisements, we are not all annoyed by it, we barely even notice it, it is just what we were taught, it is normal. And it is this pervasiveness that has become noticeable to more and more people in the last two decades. People are waking up to it and realizing just how deep the rabbit hole goes. There is no one entity behind this conspiracy, however. For it is not a conspiracy. It is just the way human society has evolved. And we are on a course to correct it.
To think that only this year, women in one major country of the world were finally given the right to drive legally sounds absurd, but it is true. Even though this is a stride in the positive direction, it is some indicator as to how much work there is to be done. And it cannot be accomplished without men’s active participation. Women are part of every man’s life, be it their mothers, sisters, friends, girlfriends, wives, co-workers, etc. It takes some effort to break out of the skepticism that has traditionally been applied to any act of sexism women complain about, but men are doing it. For their to be any real change, men have to care about feminism as much as women do, and we do. Slowly but surely more and more men are joining the frontlines, face painted, ready to take down sexism wherever we see it!
