Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Happy belated women's day!

The World women's day whizzed past us with many a vivid fb status updates, pizza offers, girls nights out and what not. The buy one get one free pizza offer for women's day was the one that amused me the most. However, hats off to Pizza Hut for at least caring enough that the women in this country are fed sufficiently even if it is for just one day :D

An incident which occurred on the women's day itself set my mind in motion. Although a Lady *snobby pout* I am a Lady minus her own personal carriage and chauffeur and therefore, I am required to utlize the public transport services quite frequently. Therefore, I should say that I am quite well versed in kicking, punching, castrating (haven't yet gotten around to it, but quite looking forward to it) individuals with severe mental problems who like groping women up and down and exposing their wobbly bits in public. However, on this particular day, a tiny-minded individual with severe mommy issues happened to try his luck, apparently with the wrong girl and the lady, possessing quite a temper, happened to twist his slimy fingers to their breaking point, without even the courtesy of looking back in to the face of the kind young man who lent his fingers to be twisted like modeling clay. She did it oh-so-casually that it shocked and bewildered the perv, even though he did keep muttering curses under his breath with a fearful glance every now and then. I dare say that I enjoyed myself very much. It felt good. 

Times are such that a woman cannot walk down the street, take a bus, travel alone without being groped, starred at, addressed in obscenities by puny insects who call themselves male. And we have dimwitted diplomats going around the world preaching about our "culture" giving birth to "well disciplined" men who respect and protect women. We speak of gender equality and men are often seen raising their eyebrows and smirking with expressions which spell 'bloody feminists" when a woman speaks out for her race, on behalf of freedom and liberation of the female kind. Well, one does not have to be bra-burning, stark raving mad in order to address the many issues that a woman living in this apparently "cultured and well disciplined" society have to bear up with. Men who smirk and raise their eyebrows when speaking of women's rights do not get groped by strange people (I have a feeling that they would enjoy it very much if they do get groped), they don't get starred at, they don't get leered at, they don't get called a "bitch" or "slut" for speaking out one's mind or for dressing in whatever way that he prefers to be dressed in. For God's sake, a man can walk in to a public place in the world's most ridiculous pair of flowered shorts, wearing his socks over his ears, sporting the most horrendous head of hair that has been colored a blazing orange and he will not even be noticed let alone commented upon! How is this fair?!?!         

Despite the claim that the woman in this society is given her rightful place, only a woman living in this society with both her feet planted firmly on the ground would know the truth as it is. Driving for a woman is as hectic and harassing as using the public modes of transport with thousands of perverts who will be starring down your neckline, groping you up and down, leaning against you, undressing you with their eyes. All sorts of jerks will swerve their vehicles towards you, cut in quite abruptly in front of you and when the two vehicles collide, they will try to use their physical strength to frighten and intimidate you in to paying them a compensation. When that does not work, they will try to demean and challenge your intelligence with "what do you know about the world? You are a woman" kind of attitude. I like to surprise these jerks at times with my "limited female viewpoint" of the world and it feels good to see how most of these spineless things scowl and shut their cake holes without further displaying their ignorance.

I have often seen women getting harassed in the public and I have seen them bearing it all up in silence. I have seen friends getting harassed and yet when I try to speak out for them, I have been held back by my friends themselves because "we are women" and because "we don't want any trouble". I had often tried to retort and reason with them but then I see the fear in their eyes and I hold myself back, placing a reassuring pat on their arms. Ladies, before you start venting about equality of the genders and all the riff-raff I'd say we fight for one of our most basic rights, the right to go about our day without being harassed, groped or raped on the way to office, home or school. No amount of banning pornography sites, taking down "inappropriate" cutouts or blurring out scenes from movies even when a lady's dress is slightly lifted by the wind (Honestly, watching a movie on a local TV channel is like trying to count the tiles on a bathroom wall through a  shower curtain but that's another story) However, don't y'all think that all the time spent and the trouble taken for censoring movies and teledramas, taking down of billboards and etc would be better spent if all that energy is directed towards making the society a safer and a more liberated space for a woman to move about in? But then again, must the authorities do everything? Ladies, it is YOUR silence that encourages these ballless bastards, it is on YOUR fear that they feed on. Time to embed a stiletto heel or two on a leering and jeering face that makes lewd comments or mutters obscenities in your ears, I'd say.

There are two types of women in the world. The Eves who are made from Adam's rib who are meant to be sweet, gentle and subordinate and then there are Liliths who were meant to be Adam's equal, made from the same stuff, only muddier and sturdier stuff than what Adam was made of. But what I believe is that there is a Lilith and an Eve in each and every woman and that it is a woman's experience, circumstances and conditions to which she is exposed that determines whether Lilith or Eve emerges each time. So ladies, invoke Lilith for strength and protection and cherish Eve for gentleness and forgiveness because it is this rare combination of unrelenting tenacity and unparalleled gentleness which makes a woman incomparable to any man who gropes, touches, stares, mutters obscenities or simply remains inactive while he knows that women are being harassed, molested and subjected to all sorts of injustices all over the world.

Phew.....now that its all been said, happy belated women's day everyone! :)