The narrow line of distinction between men and women has widened immensely over some periods of history. In the ‘Chaos Theory’, this may be described as the ‘Butterfly Effect’, where a little error transforms into a huge one, owing to further calculations performed with that error. A very striking instance of this fissure is the patriarchal society.
‘So dark the con of man’- the anagram of Madonna of the Rocks would have incited the ‘The Da Vinci Code’ readers (especially the feminists). Although there have been rebellions against the unjust society, people have wondered: did women ever have a Renaissance?
Now I have a question that few would have pondered upon. Do you
seriously think that due to patriarchy, only women have suffered? Why do you think men are always found at higher risk of a heart attack on an average? Why are stricter punishments awarded to boys than girls at school? Why the hell should soldiers who fight on fronts be mostly men when we have heard stories about fierce Amazons in the past? The answer to all these questions and many more is patriarchy. Therefore, every man must loathe patriarchy as much as a woman does.
By talking about all this stuff, don’t think I am downplaying the evils of patriarchy that have tormented women over generations. What I am suggesting is that equilibrium is beneficial to both parties. Therefore, I must warn all men and women to stay away from male and female chauvinistic ideas. Those who find female chauvinism an alien concept must remove some seaweed from their brains and get updated.
A question that intrigues me is that why are so many feminists bestowed with an inferiority complex. While they must report crimes meted out against women, they must also encourage women to emulate epitomes and that, is not actually happening. For example, I know people (women, I mean) who don’t know anything about (and don’t actually care) Indra Nooyi, Chanda Kochar or Hillary Clinton. While this is pardonable, what is not pardonable is that they do not think that women can be like those mentioned above because they have hardly ever known women like those in their lives. So while it is quite easy for us to discuss stuff like women should fight for their rights, we may not realize that there are people who don’t know a thing about their rights. Therefore, if you are going to fill their minds with pessimistic junk like human rights abuse and so many women falling prey to those abuses, you are just cementing their age-old myths. Let us consider an analogy. A slave in Virginia is told every day that s/he is enslaved. Slavery is a gruesome inhumane crime! But it is like hammering on cold iron. Instead if s/he is shown that other slaves are fleeing to Ohio, your job is done.
The idea is that self-realization and self-motivation is what we want. You know what, making special laws for women rights violation is also an acceptance of the yoke of patriarchy. Why not just consolidate human rights laws because then we are treating the two sexes as equal. While the need of the hour is to provide special laws for protection of women rights, in the long term, every feminist must seek to curb those laws and not elaborate them. This should be considered as attainment of symmetry.
PS: The article is not obsessively optimistic. While it does not negate the plight of women, it is an antidote to pessimistic feminism.