“My mother didn’t permit me to go to school. She said, ‘If you can read and write, that’s enough.’ One evening, I looked at myself in the mirror, and I got slapped by her.” This dialogue is from the film “The World Before Her”. The film explores two contrasting worlds for women in India: the Miss India beauty pageant and the Durga Vahini Hindu militant camp. The film highlights the complexities of female agency and the challenges women face in navigating societal expectations and personal aspirations. In this particular scene, the spokesperson addresses the young women inside Durga Vahini Camp in Aurangabad, she proudly announces to the young girls that she is there to teach them the duties of being a woman and goes on to tell them that a woman’s dream for her education and her ambition for her career is influenced from the western world. She questions whether there is a need for women to step out of their homes.
Some of the influencers of the “Tradwife” trend emphasise values like submission to husbands and adherence to conservative principles within marriage. They rejoice in the fact that they are housewives and that they are not like the girls who are ambitious in their careers.
The one question I have to ask these types of women who strongly oppose feminism:
Do you think you would have the choice of agency to live the way you wanted if feminism didn’t exist?
What is Feminism?
Feminism is a social, political, and economic movement advocating for the equality of all genders. It challenges patriarchal systems and aims to end sexism, discrimination, and oppression based on gender.
What is Pseudo-feminism, and how does popular media fuel this concept?
Pseudo-feminism, also known as fake feminism or feminist appropriation, refers to the use of feminist rhetoric and imagery to promote ideas or actions that contradict or undermine the principles and goals of feminism.
The Indian film critic Anupama Chopra, while reviewing the series “Four More Shots Please”, said that she stopped watching season one of the series after two episodes. And that she felt like the creators were merely “checking off boxes about feminism, the glass ceiling, sexual freedom and friendship” rather than crafting a story.
The series “Four More Shots Please” follows the story of four unapologetically flawed women as they live, love, make mistakes, and what makes them tick through friendship and shots of tequila in millennial Mumbai. They drink, smoke, and have sex whenever they want to. The major criticism raised about this series is that it sometimes showcases situations where actions considered unacceptable for men are depicted as empowering or justified when undertaken by female protagonists. Some characters cheat on their partners on the show. While characters like this also exist in real life, and there is no problem in portraying these characters, it is the normalisation and the victimisation of these characters that is wrong. The good thing about the series is its candid depiction of female desires, fantasies, and sexual agency. But actually, these types of series and movies do more harm than good, as they offer a diluted and commercially driven version of feminism that manipulates the original narrative of feminism.
The years of struggle for equal human rights: A History of Feminism
Feminism, a movement for women’s rights and equality, has evolved through distinct phases, often termed as “waves”.
The first wave focused on suffrage and legal rights in the 19th and early 20th centuries. It primarily focused on the women’s right to vote, property rights, and challenged the legal restrictions imposed on women, particularly married women.
The second wave, beginning in the 1960’s addressed social and cultural inequalities, including workplace discrimination, domestic violence, and reproductive rights.
The third wave of feminism in the 1990s emphasised individuality, diversity, and intersectionality. The issue of intersectional feminism was raised here. Intersectional feminism means recognising how injustice is woven into both the past and the present. Centuries of violence, racism, and discrimination have created deep inequalities that continue to shape people’s lives today, determining who has access to education, safety, decent work, health care, and political power. According to this concept, women experience different types and degrees of discrimination based on the unique combination of their social identities, such as race, class, sexual orientation, and disability, in addition to their gender.
There’s a debate about whether there is a fourth wave, which focuses on issues like sexual harassment and online activism. Movements like the “Me Too” movement, which brought widespread attention to sexual harassment and assault, have been a significant force in shaping contemporary feminist discourse.
Who are some of the women who opposed women's rights throughout history?
Mary Augusta Ward, a well-known novelist, campaigned against women being granted the right to vote. Ward’s opposition to women’s suffrage was rooted in her belief that women’s unique abilities and contributions to society were best expressed outside of the political sphere. She argued that political participation would detract from women’s moral influence and their ability to nurture families. Despite this, she still played a significant role in advocating for and supporting the establishment of colleges for women at Oxford University, including Somerville College.
Phyllis Shlafly, an American attorney, spearheaded a campaign against the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), arguing that it would negatively impact women by removing gender-specific privileges.
Why do we need feminism?
Recently, the Taliban have banned windows in houses that overlook areas that overlook areas used by Afghan women, such as courtyards, kitchens, and neighbours’ wells. According to a statement by the Taliban government spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, the purpose of this ban is to prevent “obscene acts” that could result from seeing women working in these areas. In the 1970s and 80s, Afghanistan saw a period of relative progress for women’s rights, and its streets saw women walking freely in their own choice of clothing.
The women have fought for centuries to procure the rights and privileges that we enjoy today. From Savithra Bai Phule, who opened the first school for girls in India, for which people even threw cow dung on her saree, to Kalpana Chawla, the first Indian woman in space, Indian women have made their mark in every field that they have set their eyes and minds on. Whether your choice is to be a housemaker or a career-oriented woman, the agency of choice or the freedom to make that choice is the very essence of feminism.
Salman Rushdie, an Indian-British novelist, when asked whether he is a feminist, said, “Yes. What else is there to be? Everything else is being an asshole.”