The Fairer Sex with Panache

We are players of a great race. We race against time. Twenty-four hours of a day pass in a jiffy and we are hardly left with any time for ourselves. Television which was an indispensable and much looked forward component of entertainment after going home is now a part of our smartphones. With the advent of web-series, viewers are promised quality content with limited episodes and hence pure entertainment. Web-series gain popularity over word of mouth. I watched one such highly recommended series called ‘The Test Case’. A woman bravely battles the mentality of Indian society by being part of the Special Forces of the Indian Army. A job dominated by males, she breaks the stereotypes by literally standing shoulder to shoulder with her male colleagues. Of course, she has to face certain obstacles to prove her ability by fighting for herself, refusing to accept any help or support from men. She emerges victorious and holds her head high in pride. I was thoroughly impressed with the concept, dialogues and performances of the actors. It made me wonder how women still have to break so many stereotypes which exist in different facets of society. We have a long way to go before we actually have a more open-minded, egalitarian society.

Women are always under scrutiny or critical eyes, be it in their professional or personal lives. It begins with something as simple as the attire they wear. Anything above knee length can attract unwanted attention. It is not only men who judge women for their attire; women too are eager commentators and judges. There is this invisible boundary laid down by the society, which determines a woman’s character from her choice of clothes. It is this straitjacketed nature of human beings which measures a woman’s dignity on the basis of the length of her dress, rather than peeping into the wonderful soul that she might be. Many times in local trains or at public places some men take the liberty of staring constantly at girls. How that girl or woman is dressed is immaterial. The fact that she is a female is enough to look at her. If such men take part in the game which involves staring at someone without blinking, they would surely win it!

In professional world, women are at par with men. Women are good decision makers and managers. Keeping everything organized and up-to-date is a woman’s forte. Their insistence for perfection can sometimes make them tough beings to work with and at the same time challenging living up to their expectations. Women are human beings too, and therefore lack of empathy and stubbornness does not escape them as well. Today women are ambitious and they want their word to be ultimate in the work that they do. For people who think that women are overly emotional, they are not aware that pragmatism has already reached the fairer sex. Though many companies today boast of gender equality, it is a bitter reality that even in developed countries like Germany, women face inequality in pay. Even the choice of education is gender-specific. Some careers are meant exclusively for men, while some exclusively for women. Any ‘diversion’ in this ‘established model of thoughts’ and eyebrows are raised and perceptions about sexuality are formed. I remember a story by Sudha Murty wherein she recounted her years of engineering as the only female student in the class. Times have changed today, but faint boundaries between the genders do exist.

Another huge misconception existing in the Indian minds is that a woman is complete when she bears a child. Today women are drivers of their own fate and they do not need someone special to complete them. Marriage is not binding on women; hence it is not a priority in their checklist of long term goals. They get married when they are ready and not when the society expects them to be. Age is just a number for them. They can find a perfect man even at the age of 40 or 50! Staying single and living life on their own terms can sound as exciting as spending the lifetime with a partner. I came across some articles which stated that several women nowadays postpone pregnancies in order to fulfill their career goals first. Science and technology are developed to benefit the humankind and therefore, a late pregnancy is not an impossible thing today. Women do not get into the ties of marriage only because their biological clock is ticking. Educated women these days put a careful thought before choosing their partner. It is not simply a decision taken out of coercion or emotions. Motherhood is surely a pristine feeling, but that experience not all women may want to have. Even the society should not judge such women or couples for such a ‘bold move’ as many would think!

Women are all pervasive and foundation of every society. Marketing and advertising world has banked upon this very fact to promote their products better. Almost every advertisement that we see revolves around women. They are managers at home as well after all. Beauty is synonymous with women and hence there is panoply of beauty products which ‘persevere’ to enhance a woman’s personality. The definition of beauty is sadly limited to only fair and flawless skin, indicative of a woman’s success. If fair skin were the secret of success and beauty, then all white skinned women would be the happiest on Earth! Women are also victims of body shaming, where only being in good shape matters in order to be noticed by people. This myopic view of beauty needs to be modified. A cheerful and happy face with poise would make every woman look beautiful. The most amusing advertisements are that of sanitary pads which overflow with unrealistic optimism and temerity. Women definitely do not prefer white clothes when their red flower is blooming! The advertisements put up a very utopian life of women. In reality, a woman’s life is all about balancing her home and work, being successful in both these lives while wading through the crowded local trains every day to work. Her dreams and sense of responsibility keep her going, irrespective of her monthly menstrual cramps or with the new life growing inside her.

Women are indeed a unique creation of God. They are too strong to demand leave from work when they are menstruating. When people call women the weaker sex, I wonder how they make such reckless statements. Women are physically stronger than men for they give birth to a new life. Therefore, it is often said that childbirth is a woman’s second birth, in danger of maternal mortality that may occur. The core of a woman is not flawless beauty and perfect physique. Her true beauty is reflected through her flaws and imperfections. And when people learn to accept women, stand by them in all their difficulties, say by being supportive even when they are PMSing, encouraging them to look after their health, giving them freedom to make their own choices and most importantly imparting in them a sense of confidence and independence, we can call every woman to be elegant. Feminism would then soon make way to welcome egalitarianism as a symbol of a modern and developed society.