EQUALITY- The Language Of Feminism By Sudhangi Mishra

"Empowering woman" "raise the ladies" or easier -"keep the ladies superior to men!" Isn't this what we've been reading, listening, and watching all this time? But do we realise what these activists have been impacting us as? Is this in real the actual meaning of what we call 'Feminism'? Was keeping woman above men the real meaning to it? Is this what Feminism speaks? Or have we been misinterpreting it for long now?

1. True Idea of The Word

Viewing things from the beginning and getting a clearer

view, Feminism word first appeared in France and The Netherlands in 1872 during Feminist movements and protests that aimed to define, establish, and achieve the equality of each sex. The word was brought up to symbolise Raising the female gender sector of the world to the level where our men stood. But trying to surpass them and bringing the men down to the degree where it feels like discrimination against them itself is a wrong choice the society altogether continues to make. Talking about equality never means bringing or boosting woman up or sexism against women but bringing sexes shoulder to shoulder.

2. Gender Equality – Not Yet A Reality

Be it females taking men down under the name of feminism or our governments making laws favouring members of the gentle sex only after tagging it under the titles ‘woman empowerment’. We stand today with no gender-neutral laws. In this era all genders work together on same floors and ranks in metropolitan cities. And now when we look around to catch a glance at our government policies and quota systems, we will observe how just like our government hasn’t yet changed their quota system till date favouring the backward castes in India, the same way it hesitates to even take a note of our gender policies and laws against males. Which in a manner is direct assault towards them. Sure the world continues to practise sexism against women, but my view of looking asks- what about the same against men?

3.Practising freebies isn’t free, it costs much more than money From centre’s decision proposed to make metro and bus travelling free for women in the national capital or other freebies which uses up public’s money under the name of women safety. How is making travel free of cost going to make them safe from sexual assaults? There’s no doubt women have to face groping, pinching, jostling, and other sexual molestations in crowded transports because they are women but this will never cease just because they do not have to pay for their tickets and get all sorts of freebies out of public taxes money.

Moreover, exercising freebies: a) Creates further divide, both the genders start viewing themselves on different levels. b) Lowers dignity of females c) Brings in view the womanhood is not capable of more than that. Women’s safety isn't an easy issue and can't be reduced to simple solutions like making bus travel free. Besides, metro and buses don’t go everywhere in narrow dark lanes which most often are the easy hotspots for such sexual misconduct. We are living in a fool’s paradise if we think that we can sit back without worry once women get to travel FREE in buses.

4. Is this turning into discrimination against men? When our gov speaks of “sabka saath sabka vikas” I wonder if it’s just about poor and backward societies and if they even are taking both genders in consideration. Because Men too face their problems, which people barely can pay heed to. How many of us have noticed harassment against men yet? Both men and woman face it. Men on the contrary feel isolated and nowhere to go for justice, few end up taking their own lives too.

a) Female violence against men There remains a theory that men under report their experiences [of violence by women against men], all thanks to a culture of masculine expectations. This includes false sexual assault cases against men by women too. Of course, not every woman is a faulter but this is one serious issue against the gentlemen of our society without a doubt.

b) Homicide Crime statistics from the 1976 onwards show that men form up most of the homicide perpetrators. Men are also over represented as victims in homicide involving both male and female offenders. [source: Wikipedia] c) Molestation against men Abuse knows no gender. Sexual violence against men has been ignored under all the big attention given to sexual violence against women and youngsters. There is no legal framework for a lady to be prosecuted when committing violent offenses against a man.

Favouring females for empowerment in areas where progress is still stagnant or below the line is an absolute necessity. BUT favouring woman with absurd means like free travel where it isn’t even necessary gives rise to even more inequality in the society, making it believe women are a different sector incapable of things, which further keeps creating even more gender gaps. Irrespective of the amount we invest in women, our focus shouldn’t just limit till half of the society. Men also need to be participants of equal rights between genders.

So, Drop the gender masks cause the time is ripe to talk about the topic openly where men do not feel isolated and feminism truly starts speaking the language of gender equality than biasness. Concisely it should be youth empowerment than women empowerment, because True gender equality is when both women and men have a voice.