Atharva Thite Nashik India
*ME, FEMINISM & SOCIETY*
The world is changing and the way it worked is changing too. These changes have brought mostly positive effects and are bringing great impact not just over day to day decisions in households but also socio-political decisions.
Today the world has privilege of having choices and opportunities and platform for their voice to stand in front of the few powerful people in world. People have earned the freedom that they have always believed in, these has made possible for us to fight the Patriarchy and the Chauvinist residing spaces.
It was a high time that we embrace the differences amongst us and accept each other as we are, nakedly without any bygones. The shift in the society has brought us close and has made us believe that a problem is not individualistic rather it’s about the society, in this meantime we have broken barriers and have talked about the then taboo topic, which has been a game changer and has brought in many solutions and has given us power to stand united. Whenever I see all these changes and the crumbling of power centers and people being involved in governance, I feel proud to be the part of a revolutionary generation. Today there are many unfolds and people are engaging their time, power to resolve issues.
We since history have been Patriarchal society and have taught the boys to blend into the cast of so-called Men, to disdain the emotions and sympathy that makes us humans. We have been in a ride of Chauvinist mentality and have taken it too far to suppress women and to simply discredit them.
But what we ignore is the fact that Chauvinism and Patriarchy have also mentally harassed, emotionally destroyed men, they have also been the victim beyond that face of a macho man, but this does not change that women have been the victim of a world that was casted by dominancy of powerful men.
But today I can proudly say that we have managed to vocalise and that we are in a battle of Gender Equality and Women Rights. I truly feel the ongoing victory is because of the early Feminist activist and the people who supported and went against the lobby to support the cause. But I am conscious and worried about the path that some of us are walking on, is that our path? is that our ideology? is it our destiny?
Our fight and struggle is for Equality and Rights and not for Women embarrassing men or shaming them publicly, these incidents have been taking place and are usually been ignored and laughed at, but as a boy who is trying to figuring it out, who is trying to learn how the world functions and how it transforms, I feel that such practices are defaming our cause.
Here is how Men support and see Feminism;
We are Men and we do support feminism, but there is more to it! As we live our lives we have a baggage of generations of patriarchy and as we gain consciousness we stand for equality we stand against the Chauvinist culture, to put in simpler words we men have a welsh culture of Patriarchy and have low Emotional Quotient it’s a constant duel between the Ruling, arrogant, ignorant and toxic Patriarchy and budding, beautiful concept of Feminism that promises Change and blossom of Existence. There is a constant war of ideologies that’s not an easy job, on the one side you know what’s the right thing to do and on the other you also have the society that keeps an eye upon you which shall out rule you if you raise voice against them.
People are accepting Feminism and are working the way out, but the world is more complicated than that it’s just the newness of that concept and the small space that it has made in this world, we aren’t acknowledging the larger picture rather we have settled our cause into the urban areas and have forgot to reach up to the dense population living in rural areas. I believe this comfort has deviated us from our original ideology and we are shipping our focus towards the exploitation of Laws and systems that are meant to protect women, we no longer are in service of equality rather we are devoting our power for Women Supremacy.
The Movement of Feminism dates back to 1848 and was a historic moment in world history, that affected the lives Women in the world. Elizabeth Stanton 1902 was the one to come up with the ideology and strategies of the movement, mainly focusing over equality for Women. In this time American educator Margaret Sanger vocalise about the women rights and birth control.
There have been predominant waves of Feminism the 1st wave brought about Voting rights for women 2nd wave brought about liberalisation and female exposure to workplaces but alarming the 3rd wave has brought Man hating, Victimhood mentality and over sensitively provoked aggressive behaviours.
This journey of feminism, it has discovered many highs and lows but now the so-called feminist are getting insecure and are claiming/ demanding for an overpowering lifestyle ruling out men. The way I am seeing feminist movement going on is just like a powerful turbulent water stream gone rogue destroying the beautiful towns, where peace resides. I rather would like to believe that these radical personalities are not true feminists they are using the cause as a shelter to hide from their dark doings, in that intentful bitterness they have destroyed the essence and sanity of feminism.
Today the men are in a dilemma and in a hanging situation about their rights and respect in the society, as it seems the world is becoming intolerant for men, and in many instances for the women who don’t believe in the radical thoughts of women superiority. The power in hand of women have been used as weapon against men!
The irrational society and the media trials have been the major force in disabling the Men Rights, as soon as the Man is accused of Rape or Sexual Harassment, he has got nothing left! The society harasses his family, he loses his jobs, his reputation and even if he is found not guilty there is no irreversible effect and there is no reconciliation for his loss, whereas the fake victim gets fame. This is not an issue just because men are involved but also because of such fake cases the real ones are ignored or the justice is delayed. We need to understand that such fake allegations slows down the judiciary and also makes it helpless for the true victims. There are major problems for us to see, a large sum of cases aren’t even registered because of society pressure and we need to work over that. The most empowering movement was #MeToo there were some legit cases and justice was brought to them, it was a seeming less power but wasn’t used well, the movement got polluted by the fake allegations and that destroyed the credibility of the movement. As we speak of MeToo, there were no voids for men to come ahead to open up and have justice, the whole movement just made men wonder about their rights and position in society!
There are no laws which ensure men’s safety or laws that acknowledge that men can be victims of Sexual Harassment and Sexual Abuse. No incidences where a case is filed against a woman for abusing a man. There is no law for domestic abuse on men, and the statistics that show mere few percent of male being victim is incorrect because most of the cases get resolved by men paying a subsequent amount of money to the woman, rather that fake allegations on him.
The Pseudo-Feminist/ Radical Feminist have goon too far and have blurred of lines and diluted the terminologies that in turn has caused ease for misuse against the men. There are many such made up cases due to broadening the spectrum of Rape (indicating that a smallest action can be termed as rape if the victims say s0) this has decreased the effectivity of the particular terminology. These people have accused Men, gender in general to be rapist and have accused men’s Chivalry and Masculinity to be toxic! Fun fact: literally #KillallMen was the slogan in some marches.
Let’s talk about Men’s Rights– Men have high suicidal rate than women and a prominent cause is fake allegations; Every nine minutes a married man commits suicide in India due to alleged misuse of section 498a of IPC against them, taking the toll to around a whopping 64,000 every year, says a report.
Men have high chances of getting convicted than women. Men are more to be diagnosed with depression due to societal pressure.Women are more likely to get child’s custody over a divorce. Women earn more than men over the age of 35 years and the wage gap according to reports is due to the differences between the occupations opted generally by women. This are just some of the issues I have highlighted, and by doing so intend of accusing the opposite gender.
What I conclude is, we all need to acknowledge the differences between us, so as to welcome Equality. Rather that blindly believing that world is monotonous, we need to understand there are shades of everything and reason behind everything. There is a difference between Male and Female and that difference is beautiful and is to be embraced.
I hope we all march happily towards the era that embraces each of us, bearing the flag of humanity higher, lets watch out for everyone, work for equality talk about Men’s and Women’s Rights and most importantly we find a common ground.
