Almost all the headlines read the same except when the other gender of the planet, the woman, did something for the first time.
When Dr. Rajendra Prasad became the president of India, almost all the newspaper headlines read, " India gets its first President" or "Dr. Rajendra Prasad became the first president of India"
And then, when Pratibha Patil became the president of India, EVERY newspaper headline read, "Pratibha Patil becomes the first woman President of India"
As if, all together, something strange happened and a woman became a President of the country.
And so was the case when Kalpana Chawla went to the space. First half-Indian woman going to the space, how strange is that? Why does her being a woman in space makes headlines?
How does Arundhati Bhattacharya becoming the chief of any bank makes things different? Why weren't same amount of interviews and features written when Pratip Chaudhuri became the chief of State bank of India?
A friend recently stood up for the most senior position in an organisation I am associated with. After her presentation, all her co-competitors, all men in their most gentle-manly way, stood up to salute her because she was the first female applicant for that post in history for the organisation.
How does that make a difference? What made them think that it needs some supreme power for a human with a different sex needs to possess some supreme power to do something that men have always been doing?
How does a woman not being able to meet her targets make her more forgivable then her male colleague?
Since a last few years, women of India have been enjoying a lot of extra attention and effort that has been put on them by the concerned people.
Special laws, Special government quota, Special railway seat and umm..and extra attention as always!
To all those who followed up my case when I reported for the harassment at Bhadra fort, of a few things that still resonate in my ears were by that man sent by the police to help me. When the shopkeeper told him that he did nothing (shockingly) but me and my friend were trying to steal things from his shop (ridiculously) the man told him that no one would believe him because we were girls.
"We are doing it to empower and celebrate achievements of a women" is the most un-thoughtful statement some could come up with.
Do we realize that it is this special attention and emphasis for woman that has made eradication of sexism impossible in the world? Yes, by this, I put forth the fact that it is not just in India but everywhere in the world!
Do we realize that it is this special attention and emphasis that has encouraged gender inequality?
Do we realize that it is this special attention and emphasis for woman that made this man say things as if me and my friend were taking undue of advantage of being women.
Do we realize that it is this special supposed empowerment schemes and actions done for women that subconsciously affects the psych of people emphasizing the fact that women are a weaker sex and need special attention and activities for making them equal to men?
Well, we women do not need your special attention for uplifting us. We aren't a feeble-minded child in a class room who is given special tutorials after school.
Just do not oppress us and take away our right to take exactly the same lessons as men do. Simple request.
Same is for blacks and white, fats and slims, upper castes or lower castes, everyone!
Just let equality happen, please!
Do watch this video shared by gotstared.at, a clip from Scandal to get a clearer picture of the point am trying to make:
Do we realize by emphasi
