Monday, January 10, 2022
Equality?
This is a thought that has been bothering one for a while now.
We are all brought up in a society which has its own restrictions and thoughts. Dresses, activities, behaviour and all else is classified based on gender roles
A woman doing something that is considered traditionally masculine is hailed and considered as part of women empowerment. A woman doing hard-work, wearing traditionally masculine-tagged clothes (shirts and pants etc.) is considered a good thing. Anything that a woman does outside of the traditional definition is considered bringing them to mainstream. It is labelled as removing gender discrimination. It is celebrated even by the so called feminists.
There was even a recent press article which boasted and celebrated the introduction of uni-sex uniform elsewhere. Everyone was pictured wearing pant and shirt. Women who become engine drivers, auto drivers, bus drivers are celebrated.
It all sounds happy and cozy till now.
However, a man wearing clothes in bright colours which are traditionally considered feminine is a taboo. A pink shirt and green pant is ridiculed. So called openminded folks themselves don't even permit such things, let alone appreciate or even approve. It is not about a male wearing a skirt or a saree. It is ridiculed. Such a thing is passed around as a joke.
Sometimes, while a woman in a saree is praised, a man in a dhoti is not treated similarly.
One tends to think that real equality is when no such sexist and gender-biased rules exist. Any person must be free to wear anything they consider comfortable. It must not be commented. It must not be looked at, with any coloured lens.
Real equality is when every person is free to practice what he/she/they consider correct for themselves. That is the mordern and open society that must be aimed at...
