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Let’s admit it, our society is sexist. Sexism is everywhere, right from the disappointment on a family’s face when a girl child is born to the frown on the face of every male employee when they have a female boss. Even those who proudly announce themselves as being of progressive thought, tend to have a subconscious bias purely by virtue of the people they interact with on a daily basis.
Recently, Swara Bhaskar penned down a powerful letter about sexism. She points out, in striking detail and with just the right amount of satire, how sexism has plagued every corner of our society and as a result, made the life of every woman a living nightmare.
– When another director (also struggling may I add) rejected me for yet another female protagonist role saying I don’t look like lead material – I smiled and started wearing heels! (stick out a heel).
I mastered the art of appearing well groomed on the treacherous war zone known as the award function red carpet. Mastered the art and exhausted the bank balance on hairstylists, makeup artists and clothing stylists. And it worked! I started looking like ‘lead heroine’ material! Okay, so a couple of films I featured in were super hits and my role was appreciated but FUCK that! I was looking the part – who cares that I was also playing the part!
You descend upon us in the very infancy of our consciousness… Smile.
You give us values – collective cultural values and impulses that we as an entire culture inculcate. Different values for girl and boy children.To the girls, you teach us to be Be nice! Be dutiful. Be polite. Be responsible (responsible towards others feelings). Be obedient (to elders and teachers). Be respectful (i.e. obedient). Be strong i.e. be sacrificing. Be forbearing i.e. suffer in silence.
And the boys, what values do you give them? MUMMMMMMMMMYYYYYYYY!!!!!
And then you give us the double dose values ka Fevicol- so that these values are ingrained in our psyche – Forgetting ourselves and guilt .i.e. Forgetting our desires And feeling guilty when we remember to feel our own desires.
Vocabulary, stereotyping
Complaining is uncool. That’s it. Simple. And for the complainers, you have this two-pronged attack.
Vocabulary: You have appropriated the vocabulary of the resistance to yourself – and come up with counter terminology. Every time we complain you come back at us with words. FEMINAZI! And Hashtags – #NotAllMen, #MenAreTheRealVictims, Youtube videos, sketches, songs, that are all genuinely funny! Humour – you’ve aced using humour to your offensive strategy – and yeah well we laugh too!
Bra Burning FeminazisSINBAD: Single Income No BF and Desperate Feminist who Needs a fuck
And my favourite, Flop – Publicity – Hungry -Actress. And maybe let’s throw in Anti-national-sluts also.
You are the Shakespearean inspiration behind the terms Anti-National, presstitute, Libtard of our troll Twitterati!
I am not a Feminist waaley feminists i.e. Aurat hi Aurat ki sabsey badi dushman hai
This is the beauty pageant answer or superstar actress answer that makes me want to bounce off the walls in defeat. And this is the secret to your success.You created a secret army of Non-Feminist – Feminists to counter us, Feminist Feminists. You know one Ivanka Trump for every 100 Women’s March activists.
There are several open letters out there, each of them calling out sexism at the workplace, in school and more or less in every aspect of daily life. I have had readers remark about the sheer volume of these letters and sometimes even be annoyed about it. To those, I ask you this: If you want to hammer a nail into a particularly stubborn wall, is one blow of the hammer ever enough?Â
Source: India Today
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