എസ്. എ. എച്ച്.എസ്. എസ് കരിങ്കുന്നം/അക്ഷരവൃക്ഷം/Feminism – A Clarification
Feminism – A Clarification
The word feminism is perhaps one of the most misunderstood and misinterpreted term. Each word I am going to say is actually a synthesis of what I learnt and knew since my girlhood. Even as a little girl, I noticed the fact that first and boys were treated differently and were taught and brought up to cultivate these differences. I mans these differences are more cultivated that in born in a boy or a girl. In fact which one of us women has not at some point or other in our lives been told, rather REMINDED “to behave like a girl” or “Don’t you know that good girls don’t do this? The virtues that girls were taught to cultivate (such as grace, gentleness, docility family centeredness etc.) were viewed by boys as timidity, weakness lack of pride and an incapacity to have a world view on matters. I have told you earlier that the word feminism is a misunderstood concept. It does not mean bossing a man or to beat him in terms of abilities. Feminism is just a humble request to all men to treat us as equals in all respects. It is a plea to mankind not to treat women as a doormat to be stamped upon or a flower to be crumbled in a fist. It is an argument to walk side by side to man, neither superior nor inferior to him. The meaning of feminism is often misconstrued to suggest that the goal of feminism is to break the holiest of social inventions i.e, the family. Duty to the family as mother, wife, etc. has been the rod with which women have continuously been blackmailed into submission. IAnother unfortunate connotation of the words feminism is that a feminist is a women who wants to be like a man, imitate him in dress and do everything he does. A feminist is seen as a women who does not care for any of the conventional womanly graces. ILet me conclude. A feminist is one who fights for gender justice, who thinks about the problems, status, contributions, rights and responsibilities of women. Feminism is thus an ideology. It is a fact that if the women’s cause can be tackled with sincerity and commitment to ensure gender justice, then more than half the problems in the world will be solved.
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