Feminism just like spirituality is the most used, abused, misused, insanely interpreted, dreaded word. Poor shabd – must be cursing its stars for all the pain it is enduring. At times, we all tend to operate in binary – either fond of or fear the concept. Smart ones will always twist and turn it to suit their narrative. It’s a heavy and loaded word in the present scenario for sure. Personally, would prefer calling it “humanism” as any principles meant for humans should automatically get applied to any gender.
Crudely put – it’s understood as some “ism” that is pro female and anything that speaks for girly gender becomes anti-boyclub for no rhyme or reason. There is nothing to debate about the fact that it was very much needed irrespective of how messy, classless, desperate, loud, noisy, irritating it might sound – especially based on who is projecting it and how it’s done. Lack of finesse doesn’t and should not determine how fit this “ism” is – as it has definitely improved quality of living for both male and female.
When someone, basically any human, is suppressed for ages – emotions are bound to come out in a way that is not necessarily prim and propah. Any movement including feminism has to start somewhere and will take a bumpy journey of its own based on the circumstances of that particular decade. Transition by nature is troublesome as one has to go through hell lot of churning before arriving at clarity of what works and what doesn’t. Also, there is a possibility of collateral damage – nature of the beast & #metoo movement can vouch for the same.
It’s disgusting and sad that right to basic decency had to be fought for so long by chic chick clan. Also, it’s not organic for men/boys to understand it as they have got the privileges by default and might not realize the value & gravity of it. It’s not a blame game or a grand judgement but a natural observation. Simple analogy – we all took our parents for granted during childhood – we thought it’s their duty to take care of us, forgetting the bitter truth that many out there in the world don’t have this support system. That doesn’t make us bad or cruel but it’s just plain inexperience. Similar is the case with testosterone tribe and hence it will take some seasoning for them to feel the feminism funda
Lot of our issues are simply because of conditioning and how it plays out on our mind at sub conscious level. Shackles of conditioning & comparison can only be shaken up by reinterpreting our mediums of influences such as books, ancient scriptures, movies, web series, talks, music, painting, daily conversations, education system etc. New age IQ is all about how we interpret and imagine.
Sita ma is a warrior in Amish’s books and also she was the one who killed demon Ravana according to some versions of ancient scripture. Sadly, none of this is part of school curriculum, Same Sita appears so helpless based on 80s 90s TV serials. Her suffering is glorified to an extent where we literally feel like punching lord Ram for putting her through all those ordeals. No one is wrong or right and that’s the beauty of interpretations. We all can choose to see nuances of characters as represented by the writer in various books or visual mediums and choose the ones that suit the era we live in.
Draupadi is always projected as a synonym for revenge – key person who insisted on war, but there are various plays written by new age writers including my own Mom where Draupadi‘s sole focus was to make sure her children get their due. She doesn’t give a rat’s ass to vengeance. She was strong and smart enough to move on than wasting energy on petty tit-for-tat. She was and is so generously used as a symbol for entire female clan being the prime factor behind human wars.
Conveniently and poetically worded line “ face that launched a thousand ships” – basically points finger at Helen of troy as reason behind the combat bloodshed. Common sense and mature interpretation can easily see through this crap and attribute the battle to the untamed emotions of the men involved. These interpretations should be an outcome of each individual’s “FEEL” quotient than what one knows or thinks. Feelings can’t be messed with by external education and hence totally belongs to a person and are authentic. Thinking is usually borrowed or atleast influenced by lot of other already conditioned minds.
In a nut shell – Humanism for me means ‘responsible & non-judgmental freedom of choice’ where we as individuals start to interpret knowledge that already exists to give it a fresh and fair make over plus Imagine what doesn’t exist in a way that puts all humans at ease. Sensitivity and perceptiveness that support kindness by default are classy traits to have that can aid the process of interpretation and imagination in a balanced way. This would be our gift to the next generation so that they can do the same for next. Show must and will go on..