Undoubtedly, most of you will find the topic too repetitive and boring. The reason is simple: any step taken by any political party has the aim of women empowerment, even though it does not in reality lead to the same. All debates and discussion has this key idea of women empowerment. The female panelists can be found to be frequently using the phase "this is against women empowerment". Most of the female celebrities in Bollywood involve in parties on trivial occasions and tag them as "Mah friend birthday #get_together #WOMEN_EMPOWERMENT".
Well, I do not have any issue with the use of the term. Infact, it is a good sign that people are discussing on such matters. The more people discusses such matters, the better it is for the society to realise the concerns faced by women. India, on this front as well, is doing fairly good as can be seen from the growing discourse on this topic in daily course of life, particularly on the high decibel media. If everything is fine, then why am I writing this article? I do not want to add another layer to the already noisy discussion, but I want to raise a different point related to the same.
The point is: do we really understand the meaning of the highly celebrated term "women empowerment"? Does it include male bashing in it? Or does it include instagramming nude photos? Or, to add, does it also cover shouting at a male colleague for no reason just to show that women have indeed achieved empowerment? Why am I making these points is simply because I find the so-called empowered women as greatly using social media to highlight such activities and call them as consequence of empowerment. For instance, a well-known female bollywood actress recently instagrammed her nude photos terming it as celebration of feminity and women empowerment.
I have no issue with anyone using the social media for making people aware of their lifestyles. It may include partying on beach with their celebrated friends, highlighting their disputes with their male collegues or even for that matter, tweeting their nude pictures. But, I am unable to digest when they call these events as a sign of empowerment. I think such ideas gives a wrong and distorted image of the idea of empowerment.
Having discussed all these, it is time to understand the meaning of empowerment and why the above instances are not empowerment in true sense of the term. Empowerment, in simple terms, can mean that women are increasingly able to take decisions for themselves. They are no more guided by the dictates of their male authorities at home to decide for themselves and their own future, future of their children, their sexuality and so on. They can walk, and walk with all authority at their command, on equal terms with their male colleagues in offices and public discourse.
In this context, one can see the examples of the Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry Dr. Kiran Bedi, the ICICI bank chief Ms. Chanda Kochha, Biocon Chief Ms. Kiran Mazumdar Shaw among others. They have created a separate niche for themselves and have shown the world the meaning of empowerment with their deeds. They did what they wanted in life and never allowed the societal barriers to come their way.
The point that I am focussing on through these examples is that these empowered women have worked with their colleagues as equals. They became the chief of their respective institutions but have not indulged in criticising their male conterparts to prove their point. Neither, they take to social media websites to highlight their girlish party to drive their point of empowerment. This is because, if such activities are empowerment, in that case only a handful of the women in India are empowered. And sadly... the meaning of empowerment gets reduced to two things: (1) access to social media website, (2) a photographer to click photos. Then what could be the name given to such activities? Well, at best, it could be called a form of growing feminism, which is technically different from the modes of empowerment.
Empowerment, to conclude, means that both male and female counterparts are equal in all spheres. No gender is superior to the other. There is no point in showing the other in bad light. For this, India needs a co-operative and collaborative approach and not a conflict approach. This can come when we, all individuals, respect the other person in family, at office and in public life. It certainly does not include male bashing by the other group or female bashing by the traditionally dominant group in the society. Because neither of the approach will lead us to an equal society.
Well, I do not have any issue with the use of the term. Infact, it is a good sign that people are discussing on such matters. The more people discusses such matters, the better it is for the society to realise the concerns faced by women. India, on this front as well, is doing fairly good as can be seen from the growing discourse on this topic in daily course of life, particularly on the high decibel media. If everything is fine, then why am I writing this article? I do not want to add another layer to the already noisy discussion, but I want to raise a different point related to the same.
The point is: do we really understand the meaning of the highly celebrated term "women empowerment"? Does it include male bashing in it? Or does it include instagramming nude photos? Or, to add, does it also cover shouting at a male colleague for no reason just to show that women have indeed achieved empowerment? Why am I making these points is simply because I find the so-called empowered women as greatly using social media to highlight such activities and call them as consequence of empowerment. For instance, a well-known female bollywood actress recently instagrammed her nude photos terming it as celebration of feminity and women empowerment.
I have no issue with anyone using the social media for making people aware of their lifestyles. It may include partying on beach with their celebrated friends, highlighting their disputes with their male collegues or even for that matter, tweeting their nude pictures. But, I am unable to digest when they call these events as a sign of empowerment. I think such ideas gives a wrong and distorted image of the idea of empowerment.
Having discussed all these, it is time to understand the meaning of empowerment and why the above instances are not empowerment in true sense of the term. Empowerment, in simple terms, can mean that women are increasingly able to take decisions for themselves. They are no more guided by the dictates of their male authorities at home to decide for themselves and their own future, future of their children, their sexuality and so on. They can walk, and walk with all authority at their command, on equal terms with their male colleagues in offices and public discourse.
In this context, one can see the examples of the Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry Dr. Kiran Bedi, the ICICI bank chief Ms. Chanda Kochha, Biocon Chief Ms. Kiran Mazumdar Shaw among others. They have created a separate niche for themselves and have shown the world the meaning of empowerment with their deeds. They did what they wanted in life and never allowed the societal barriers to come their way.
The point that I am focussing on through these examples is that these empowered women have worked with their colleagues as equals. They became the chief of their respective institutions but have not indulged in criticising their male conterparts to prove their point. Neither, they take to social media websites to highlight their girlish party to drive their point of empowerment. This is because, if such activities are empowerment, in that case only a handful of the women in India are empowered. And sadly... the meaning of empowerment gets reduced to two things: (1) access to social media website, (2) a photographer to click photos. Then what could be the name given to such activities? Well, at best, it could be called a form of growing feminism, which is technically different from the modes of empowerment.
Empowerment, to conclude, means that both male and female counterparts are equal in all spheres. No gender is superior to the other. There is no point in showing the other in bad light. For this, India needs a co-operative and collaborative approach and not a conflict approach. This can come when we, all individuals, respect the other person in family, at office and in public life. It certainly does not include male bashing by the other group or female bashing by the traditionally dominant group in the society. Because neither of the approach will lead us to an equal society.
14 comments:
Nice article but I think every woman is empowered. It's just that they don't realize it.
Posting unclad photos on social media is more about catching eyeballs, being in news and less about empowerment. However, the outrage over it is uncalled for! While women like Kiran Bedi on one side, and male bashing femi-nazis on the other represent two extreme end of spectrum, we must acknowledge that the majority of them lie somewhere in between. It is for media to choose what to highlight.
The actress that you mentioned uploaded her nude picture (s) because she wanted to send out the message that one should be comfortable in one's own skin. For her, that is a sign of empowerment because women are judged on what they wear/don't wear, how they look (including their skin tone, among other things). So, by uploading the pictures, she meant to state that she does not care about what others think and how they perceive her. For that, she was slut-shamed. Based on those pictures, people (mostly men) decided that somehow they had the right to judge her character and refer to her as a whore, prostitute, etc. The ones who did not like what she had done could have unfollowed her on social media (that option is always there- you don't like what the person is doing on social media, stop tracing his/her activities). But, people thought they had the right to shame her for uploading a picture on her personal social media page. The term empowerment means "the process of becoming stronger and more confident, especially in controlling one's life and claiming one's rights." By uploading her picture, she essentially was trying to do that despite knowing that it would evoke various kinds of responses (mostly unfavourable).
You have mentioned extremely successful women like Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry Dr. Kiran Bedi, the ICICI bank chief Ms. Chanda Kochha, Biocon Chief Ms. Kiran Mazumdar Shaw as examples of empowered women. Sure, they are empowered and have stood out in their fields. But, empowerment does not always equal professional success and parity with male colleagues. A woman who refuses to pay dowry is empowered. Similarly, someone who insists on marrying in a household that has a functional toilet is empowered. My point is that empowerment term itself can be used in multifarious contexts. Just like the women you mentioned are empowered, so are the women I cited as examples and the actress who is discussed above.
@Shivansh. Thank You for reading my article. Your valid is highly valid. This is another perspective where the role of media also cmes into play. Point taken.
@SS. Thanks for reading. You made a valid point as far as the issues of dowry, functional toilet are concerned.
The article is very well written. I just want to add one more things. Because of the incident like the latest one i.e. posting nude photo by a celebrity and giving it a tag of woman empowerment, Most of the people who are against women empowerment gets a route to escape by citing these type of incident as a result of women empowerment and as a result debate turns a bad shape and result in nothing. The condition of the women remains pathetic mostly in poor communities. They are denied their basic rights many times by citing these type of incident as a result of women empowerment. We must not allow people to escape from real women empowerment by creating controversial statement. A well articulated article. Congrats :)
I agree with comments made by SS but the truth ground about indian society is that we are still struggling to provide indian women their basic rights. Our priority should be to provide them at least basic empowerment. Right to post nude photo is very high level women empowerment. I am not denying that it is not necessary but when the majority of the women struggle even in wearing jeans by choice, it is not worthful to put most of the media debate on high level women empowerment. No doubt every women is free to do what she want, I am just saying that we should put the focus of media on much more important meaning of women empowerment.
Insightful indeed, I agree with your thoughts of women empowerment and the examples you cite.infact shayara bano a middle class lady fought for triple talaq, you know those are heroes to us because they are achieving extraordinary stands high above than us. But again you are also seemed to be a bit confused between the feminism and freedom of expression for eg. You said kalki's nude photo on insta. Is a feminism but I prefer rather it was a freedom of expression. It's obviously nothing to do with feminism or for that matter of fact empowerment. There is a very thin line between freedom of expression 'by a female' & feminism & empowerment. Since, we lived in a 'male dominant' society, infact 'infact male dominant society where women were suppressed and they were suppressed to a level where they don't realise what their basic rights are. And now suddenly you say them that you have equal rights to Live. So obviously they misinterpreted it. And few are using these fancy terms 'male chauvinism', 'feminism', 'women empowerment' to create more confusion and raise controversy.Mostly I avoid such kind of debates but since its your blog so I put my opinion here.Thanks for writing it 😎
@Pradeep rathore. Thank you so much for spending time on my article. You have made a good point regarding the basic rights. Indeed, greater focus be made on the lower strata of the society.
@Unknown.Thank you so much for reading my article. Yes, you may say that there is a thin line between feminism and women empowerment. Also, one may categorise such acts as part of women empowerment. But again, I would reiterate that empowerment cannot be looked from such a narrow lens. Empowerment, to me, is much broader a concept and idea that cannot be reduced to a trivial act of posting photos on social media. Nonetheless, you are right in saying that it all depends on one's perspectives.
Hi . Nice wriiten.
this is off topic, read your 'meri kavita' and it wasreally nice, May be u should make the girl read this... reading this she will come running to u.......atleast u shuld try f it...:D ATB.
Thank you so much for reading my article. Will try to follow your advice :)
Yes.u shud. u neva knw u end up wrtng a happy poem. But do mention my name in it.... will help me in making my boyfriend jealous😆😆
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