Oh Womaniya!

Oh Womaniya! It’s that time of the year again. When women are glorified, put on pedestal, showered with choicest epithets  and then, forget all about it ! Till it pops up as memory on your social media account, same day next year! Not to forget the crass commercialisation of it, with beauty parlours and stores all over giving  discounts on this special day, Women’s day parties organised( whatever that means), restaurants having special menus with extended happy hours, only for women. (This one is not as bad, actually. LOL ;) ) The very essence of why this day came into existence is lost, completely! It’s a day to reflect on the trials and struggles that women had to go through for demanding socio economic equality;  it is also a day to thank all those men and women who championed for the cause, inspite of stiff resistance and ostracism. A day to remind ourselves of what they did for us, how far we have come and be grateful for it.       We have come a long way in the sense, that more females have now access to basic and higher education. Menstruation hygiene, an extremely hush hush topic is talked about openly, at least to some extent.  The Metoo movement has definitely let out some dirty secrets and made everyone think of how rampant this is in our society. Perverts would think twice before groping a woman fearing the reactions. Unmarried single females, divorced girls, single mothers are rocking it and how! Fighting every day, the conventional norms of how a woman should ‘behave’. Women are nailing it in every profession, the so called traditional male bastions too. We keep reading about it in newspapers every day. Breaking the glass ceiling has definitely beaten fitting in glass slippers. So overall, it’s been better than how our mothers and grandmothers had. But how far have we really come to being equal to our male counter parts? The problem we face now is, we have taught our girls to be independent and have raised them to be at par with male counter parts. How many have taught their sons that kitchen-kids and other household chores are to be shared equally by them too. How many mother’s would be proud of their sons helping their wives in kitchen and other domestic chores? It does hit you! At least our generation needs to teach our sons now, that pink is not girls colour, that hockey is not boys sport. We need to make them able enough, sensitive enough and understand that chores and interests are not gender specific and need not be so defined.  It’s ironic we still need to fight for entry to certain places inspite of Supreme Court ruling. Why such misogyny?  We need to stop telling our sons, ‘stop crying! are u a girl?’ or ‘stop being sissy’, even jokingly. This concept of toxic masculinity has to go. For that,we do not need a day. It has to be a way of life. A change in perspective. To understand, that feminism is not male bashing, it has to do with equality in every sphere, resisting violence, discrimination and  enjoying  the same level of freedom that half of  the population has. Is that too much to ask for? The most common form of harassment is woman shaming. Sadly, women indulge in it too! How often have we heard, said or agreed on statements like, ‘Look at her, the kind of clothes she wears, very suggestive. Or ,’ Poor Husband, he has to look  after kids after whole day of work since she is out with friends’ Or ‘She is too opinionated for a daughter in law’ Or Why is she not working, isn’t she highly qualified?’ or ‘Why is she working, she doesn’t need to. Why does she not want kids? Why not second kid? The list is endless. We need to stop this. Just live and let live. Being a woman today is using your voice to empower others, to create positive change.We need to help other women achieve their aspirations and life goals. The best ally we have is each other. Ladies, if we want to see things change, it must begin with helping each other, fixing each others crowns!  I wished my domestic help a Happy Women’s Day, she smiled coyly and said, “same to you”.:) She then suggested we celebrate it over a cup of ice cream . That is how we celebrated Women’s Day.  She, Avani and me bonding over ice cream. Of course, Aarav included. After all, its not just  women’s world !!        Happy Women’s Day to all of us. Men included:) ReplyForward