Feminism is a set of movements that strives to promote women to the level of men (in places unjustly dominated by males) to provide them with equitable opportunities to grow and prosper. The socio-political movements under the banner of feminism have given women more rights than they had in the eighteenth century, when this movement started. We have seen this noble struggle come to fruition as the oppressed and underprivileged women achieved the rights to vote, to own property, to get educated, to get paid as much as men, or to even run for any public offices.
In the “male-dominated” society of the Indian subcontinent, men are apparently misogynistic enough to write and implement specific laws in favor of women. Laws like Sections 354, 509 and 376 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and even the Prevention Of Sexual Harassment (POSH) act, adultery laws, paternity and child custody laws are all particularly biased towards women. Yet, somehow, some other-worldly “aliens” feel that women are even constituently more vulnerable than men. Men, as a gender, do not have a single law to support them in harsh cases like sexual harassment, eve teasing, etc. Especially in the POSH act, males can only be responders and not complainants, as if males are immune to sexual harassment.
Just as femininity is desired by some men, some women prefer masculinity in their partners or interests. Nobody has a right to dictate to them what they should or should not like. If I like apples, nobody can “cancel” me, claiming that I hate oranges. It is a matter of preference.
Women, generally speaking, are known to be more gentle and kinder than their male counterparts, and men, generally, are known to be muscular, coarse and physically stronger. Genes, chromosomes, hormones, muscle mass and density, bone structure and density, enzymatic action differences, psychophysiological developmental growth differences, brain structures, pain thresholds, and other somatic and non-somatic differences do exist! We cannot just ignore them and ask a frail, slender woman to compete in a wrestling match with a hulking mountain of a man for the sake of this supposed equality just to watch her be broken into a million pieces. Similarly, we cannot expect a 7-feet beast of a man to go through menstruation and labor. A woman may lodge a complaint against an assault by a man, but vice versa, the man feels ashamed. Such is the stigma around being a man.
From New York’s feminist suffrage parades to Parisian suffragettes, from Simone Veil to W. Drucker, from Emmeline Pankhurts to C.P. Giman, from Huda Sha’arawi’s struggles to form the Egyptian Feminist Union to the birthers of the Iranian Women’s movement, all these extraordinary women understood and fought the real demon inside the very fabric of our society - the repression of gender equality, human equality. Writing The Liberation of Women in 1899 by Qasim Amin and the Wuxu reforms in the late Qing period, men have always stood shoulder to shoulder with women to support them in the war against a tyrannical idea of gender superiority. I am sure that the majority of pseudo feminists don’t even know the names and struggles of these great souls!
Now since we have understood that there do exist differences in bodies, personalities, laws, and overall stigmas around different genders, let’s see how this hijacked feminism by some pseudo feminists degrade the social and the work culture.
1. Hatred and Exclusion:
These pseudo feminists breed a culture of “Us Vs Them” and create an environment of hatred and exclusion where people get involved in this “otherization” of someone different from them. In these environments, it is impossible to work in collaboration and cohesion, hence rendering teams and societies useless and even detrimental.
2. Withering Work Culture:
The work culture of any society or workplace is critically dependent on mutual respect and cohesion, and that is exactly what the pseudo feminists attack. Their greed for dominance forces them to overlook the values of society and the workplace and they leave no stone unturned to steer it in their favor.
3. Resistance to Equality/Equity:
With a sense of superiority in them, pseudo feminists always want privilege while talking about equality. The hijackers will attack the idea or the person behind the idea that remotely suggests to have the same things for all genders, claiming somehow they have more rights to a privilege than the others. As Orwell said in The Animal Farm, “some animals are more equal than others”.
4. Discrimination in Support:
Being supported in the society or the workplace is everyone’s right but the hijackers will play a victim card, going to any lengths just to get that extra ounce of emotional support that eventually leads the other gender vulnerable to bias and subtle discrimination.
5. Missing Inclusivity:
The basic tenant of true feminism was to include women in the ranks of men. Giving them the same opportunities as men. What these pseudo feminists want is the equality of opportunity but privilege in the outcome. It excludes the deserving from showcasing their skills and contribution and focuses on female-dominance over males.
6. Restricted Social and Individual Growth:
With these termites in the house, the support and the walls weaken. People are not able to move up the ladder of societal or professional progression. People become too involved in fighting off the dirty demonic politics that they find it difficult to work and contribute, leading to their stunted growth.
7. Misrepresentation of True Feminism:
These cowards and greedy hijackers have delivered a fatal blow to the entire noble movement of feminism upliftment by changing the movement so much per their whims, that people often get confused or offended if someone calls them a feminist. Present-day feminism is associated with male repression, female dominance and female privilege. Males have been feeling scared and ashamed just because they were born as males. They are now coerced into supporting absurd claims of these fake feminists and if they try to talk about true feminism, they are labelled as misogynists and women-haters.
This has to change and only women can do that!
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