Recently a picture of Mahira Khan smoking along with Ranbir Kapoor in New York surfaced, which led to a lot of bashing and hateful comments. Surprisingly all the comments were directed at Mahira Khan for smoking and wearing a backless dress. Some went on to call her a prostitute while others said that she had spoiled her good image forever. These comments just tell us clearly how sexist or society is. No one was questioning Ranbir Kapoor for smoking or insulting him for being with a female.
These are such instances whose glimpse we get almost daily. How many times have we heard people say “She is a girl and she smokes”? It always bugs me when people say such comments, it clearly displays their lack of mental maturity and outlook. Either you have a problem with smoking or drinking or not; a gender criteria should never enter into this.
How does a girl wearing small clothes invite flak while we see millions of men publicly peeing on the road without any shame. Or why is it necessary that a girl learns kitchen work but it’s not so for a boy. The repeated arguments that we hear for this is, how you have to manage your home one day or how you will need to know these skills when you go off to study alone. While I understand this rationale, shouldn’t it hold true for boys as well.
I have a friend whose cousin got married and her family asked was she will work if it’s okay with you! I will never understand Indian parents obsession with marriage, specially of their girls. A well educated girl should not need or ask for permission to work, it’s her right. So is her right to demand that all household work be divided equally amongst the couple. Compromise is something that works bilaterally; unilaterally it just leads to a position of superiority and abuse.
I have seen it countless times when my grandparents are after my mother to take money for a gift she has got for them. Have they not raised her? Or have they not loved her as equally as my uncle? Then why is that after marrying, an acceptance of anything that she gets them becomes wrong? She should be able to do things or get gifts for her parents out of her own love without it turning into a small battle.
If it is a law today that a daughter gets an equal share of her parents property as her brother, then it is also her equal responsibility to take care of them. The responsibility of looking after them is just not an emotional reproof but also a financial one. If my parents have educated me and prepared me enough to stand up and be an individual and earn my own living, then it is a duty on my part to do the same.
The problem with all these sexist handicap that grips our society lies in our upbringing. From birth a girl is told how she should be emotional, sensitive and submissive. Although situations are changing in a lot of aspects such as equal education and job prospects as well the degree of independence, a lot other facets need to be reviewed and changed. Besides providing her with equal opportunities financially, also place her at the same level emotionally and physically. The creation of different duties or responsibilities for boys and girls should not exist. There is nothing that both genders cannot do and there is no task that is more feminine or masculine that one or the other should not be doing.
A change in the mindset of the new generation of young adults will help catapult our society in a place where nothing is wrong for one gender but not for the other. Where equality truly exists. A change in such mindset will also help us bring about a positive change in the social outlook on issues that are yet considered a taboo in our society. A rural community where girls are banned from wearing jeans or using cell phones will progress only through education. And with education will come the platform of equality that can then be truly established in each household across India. This will give the coming generation an opportunity to be inclusive and cooperative in the future. It will also help realize the dreams and aspirations of countless females as well as introduce our country to unlimited talent.
Students' Beat 