We live in the 21st century, where views and opinions are highly shared & expressed publicly. It has become a symbol of social advancement, where people feel more modern, civilized, and morally correct by believing in something unconventional and unorthodox. Does it do any good to society?
The answer is Yes and No!
Awareness, realization, and adaptation of such ideas in our lives can give birth to new ways to build a better world—a world where thoughts are respected. Critical and logical thinking is encouraged. Real and ethical equality is established. The dark side of this phenomenon leads to Tokenism.
Tokenism refers to the practice of making a symbolic effort towards sensitive and significant social issues. A way to get social validation from the public and society as a whole. Many times, such practices corrupt and destroy the whole movement and idea of bridging the inequality gap. Feminism was initiated to uplift women in the society. The whole idea was to bring equality and empowerment for women. The movement has done remarkably well, but it is vulnerable to the act of tokenism. I have slowly and gradually observed how women are used to portray the picture of gender equality. You must have observed such trends in movies, entertainment, and media. Women are used as a vaccine against any allegations of a male-centric workplace and environment.
You don’t agree? Here are a few examples:
The desperation to add a woman to these big movie franchises; just to show that we have one female in our superhero group. There’s no problem in having one woman, but the problem comes when that individual is not given equal pay, plot, screen time, story, lines, profit-share, and recognition. This is not present in every franchise, but a few could be easily identified.
Similarly, "women in workplace" is a debatable topic. We add women to our workforce, but we don’t provide them with ample resources. They are often subject to discrimination and gender prejudice. Their employment and promotion are often viewed negatively. Their body and appearance are often associated with their success, which is highly unethical and immoral. Many companies need faces to represent in their brochures and public meetings. In reality, they are not even provided menstrual leave. During my time with MNCs, I often sensed the skepticism of people towards women in management. The irony is that it often came from women. They themselves claimed that a female boss is often difficult to handle and tolerate.
Such views, beliefs, and thoughts represent our society’s hidden tokenism, where we want to uplift women, but we have certain stereotypes. There are many examples which can be highlighted, and all of them hold some sort of depth and importance.
Even equality is a baffling topic today as it seems available only on paper. Big corporate giants often change their logos in the pride month to represent their unconditional support to the LGBTQ community. How many of them have they really benefited? How many of them work in their organization? I am afraid that giving free food & clothes won't really change their lives in the long run. Adding cool pictures and events is just deceitful and fictional.
A lot of the LGBTQ community is poor, abandoned, and vulnerable to exploitation, Education is the only way to uplift them in the 21st century. Adding them in movies and entertainment for diversity is a good move when you have sincere plans for their upliftment as well.
I feel so melancholic when I see the modern crowd getting excited about AI and Mars colonization, when they haven't really changed lives on Earth.
We as a society can really make a positive impact. If we change our ideologies, prejudice, and thoughts; we can surely make our world more inclusive. A world where people don’t have to rely on tokenism. A place that has no such thing as tokenism. Inclusion, diversity, and equality becomes the basic necessity.
IT BECOMES THE NEW NORM!!