Feminism..

Had I not been tagged on the topic of Feminism, I'd never blog about this. It is one of the topics I'm most confused about and wonder how much my cumbersome writing adds to the chaos. Mahi, this is just for you.

Before I even start writing about Feminism, let me introduce the kind of person I'm.

This was two years back I guess, fresh in my first job, was juggling with the heavy equipment that I was supposed to work on. Quite over-ambitiously tried to place a weighty server from one end  of the room to the other. One of my colleagues, who was keenly watching me until then, came running to help me and had he not been that prompt, I would have surely injured my hand. Instead of thanking him for the favour, almost took to him saying, "It was my work, why the hell you wanna come my way?" He was startled enough, but then knowing me pulled me into a conversation..

"So.. you don't help me. Even when you are struggling, I shouldn't be helping you?"

"Yes, that is supposedly my work and I'd do that. You needn't bother!"

"So.. you think women and men are equal?"

"I don't know all that. All I'm sure is if someone wants paying me less, just because I'm gal, I'd.. I'd.. whatever.. I'll never accept that and would fight with them. When in office, you and I are same, if that was what you were looking for!"

"Then, why do women need reservation?"

" I don't know.. I'm always against that, all kinds of reservation to that matter. I never wanted it, you know.. go and ask people who fight for it, not me."

"Okay.. I had the same question to my sister and she answered that, wanna know?"

"hmmm.."

"She says that, though men and women are equal and we have to accept that as a fact, women were left behind for various reasons, be it socio, economic sphere or anywhere. For them to come forward and match men shoulder to shoulder, they need some special attention or help now. And these reservations are exactly there in to enable women get out of their shells and prove themselves.."

He did say a lot many things, the bottom line being reservations are helpful in narrowing the differences between the males and females.

Now, the other reason I cited this conversation is that, at that moment and also a long while after that, I never thought I should be called a feminist. It took sometime for me to know what is not feminism and I'm still very unsure of what it is.

What's not feminism?

• It is not an "anti-men" philosophy. If you are feminist, it doesn't mean you've to necessarily hate men. And if you can empathize with men, befriend them, that won't stop you from being tagged as feminist. Simply put, it is NOT "fight against men."
  
• Feminism isn't an "antonym" for chauvinism. Chauvinism is a more or less a cultural trait, whereas the former was a "movement" against the cultural trait. 

Then, what is it about? Fundamental principles:

• Men and women are equal 
• There is systemic and systematic oppression of women imposed by the society. 
• Women need to stand up for themselves because no one else would do it for them - not their father, husband or son. 

"If you really wanna know about feminism, please do take time and read the wiki pages on it"  was the advice I never heeded to. All I did was to skim through it and know a li'l about the phases in it. Talking about waves of feminism, the first two waves victories are what we are enjoying today.


Forgetting all these terminology for sometime, here are my serious suggestions for the 20-somethings of the 21st century.

• Follow you heart, do what you wanna do. And while following heart so religiously,  don't let the mind wander. Make sure it gets to the business as well. 
• Better restrict the generalization of  your experiences. Don't ever go on saying, "all gals are like this.." or "men will be men" kind of statements.  They do no good, and everyone person is special in many ways. Be it a gal or a guy. There is only one "me" and only one "you". Note that. 
• Respect others on merit of their personality. I've seen people running away from "lady" bosses. Be sure when you are doing that is what I can suggest.
  
• It hardly matters you being tagged as "feminist" or not. All matters is what you think about yourself and how you wanna go about life.
  

That is all I can speak of feminism as of now. Yeah, when things work out, I may really get to deeper insights of feminism. For now this is all, if it makes sense. :-)