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For Feminism’s Sake: Introducing the Global and the Local

♀ Contents

Introduction
State of Affairs
Hometown Blues
Report Card
Conclusion

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Would it be good, if local feminist movements steer away from foreign-origin ideologies and starts directly from some firm native socioeconomic and politico-cultural foundations? Meanwhile, in our context, the global refers to the philosophies that we have from all over the world and these are crucial to give us a big picture. However, it is more critical to apply the knowledge while considering local needs and requirements.

Introduction

From a catchy slogan by Gloria Steinem, I had had my tryst with the term feminism. In those high school days, two decades ago, all I knew was to modify the slogan, ‘A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle’—from this hardcore feminist statement to a universal maxim: ‘A life without music is just like underwear without elastic.’ Everywhere I would mark and engrave this line, on school desks, notebooks and walls, as if the world would be caught literally with its pants down, along with the elastic-less underwear.

Sigh.

This is the age of cardioconnection
Image from Anonymous ART of Revolution

Steinem had reportedly re-quoted it from one of her teachers, who stated, “Man needs God like fish needs a bicycle.” Then, I was so naïve to interpret the nuances of women emancipation and the thoughts inherent in the process of women liberation.

As far as feminism is concerned, I like to go by the concept of 3Es: Equality, emancipation and empowerment. My belief is that the thoughts and action on these 3Es must be conditioned and guided by local needs and requirements.

Most of the time we tend to follow the principles laid down by who’s who of feminism but often these are people who belong to the so-called First World, or the developed countries. Well, there is nothing wrong with their beliefs but there is a danger of getting out of touch with the lived experiences of people living in lesser developed parts of the world.

This applies in feminism, and so can it be in other areas such as in the shortcomings of modernisation theory in development discourses.

State of Affairs

Now, I have very little idea about the phenomenon. Possibly this is because I expect too much from those people who stress on a women’s world—or an equal world, though pitiably they fail us and much aggravated by male nightmare, so to say.

There might be progress, undoubtedly, in thoughts and theories in universities and beyond. However, those are only as good as the number of students in classrooms. Other ideologies that originate from ground realities and ground zero are also extremely powerful but the weakness lies in their unstructured and disorganised system of information. The phenomenon of meira paibis in Manipur is a perfect example of this

We know there have been newer endeavour as evident from the gender studies and the like, but I am considering it only from a layperson’s perspective. How would a woman on the street grasp the idea of certain social and cultural constructions? How should we realise it? Then, the movement is as well always West centric, contributing more to the overall disinterest and academic allergy.

We get suffrage, liberation and sex wars as some sort of cultural trickle-down effects from the west. The lack of originality in us, living in one of the most underdeveloped regions in the world, is sometimes too blatant.

There are also many activists who take that objectification and commodification of women is synonymous to emancipation, as obvious are they in advertising and porn industry.What would Clara Zetkin, if she was alive, think about them? On the other hand, even if those activists who read Karl Marx’s manifesto of ‘The Fetishism of the Commodity and the Secret Thereof’ would keep finding the holes in the system, we live in intolerable societies that exist on relativity. The simplest example is how we put women in the form of a mother, or in other cases, goddesses on a high pedestal while women continue to suffer all sorts of violence and discrimination at homes.

However, these perspectives might be faulty with the ever-rising themes and expression of sexuality in popular media. In the present scenario, though, it is their lack of comprehensive and accessible work and subsequently their conviction deficiency, which make the concept so uninspiring.

Yet, I do not see why they would strive for equality, when they can outclass us in several aspects of our existence. The ICICI Bank Ltd’s CEO Chanda Kochchar and the legendary Simone de Beauvoir, just taken randomly, are an exception. They hail from two different corners of a society and this fact illustrates the meaning of sexual competition, while making some sort of an equilibrium from two opposite schools of thought.

A quick glance now. Mary Wollstonecraft, the British feminist’s essay, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: with Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects (1792), is usually considered as one of the earliest works in feminism. However, some historians attribute it to those from Bettisia Gozzadini, an academician from 13th-century Italy; yet she had to lecture from behind a screen! A female professor was unimaginable in those days obviously. Nowadays, Femen, the hardcore protest group, is leading the radical movements in Europe and elsewhere, with their motto of ‘sextremism’, though some people are against their allegedly obnoxious topless protests.

Sex, Interchange and Quote-ship

Again, if we observe from the western lens, historians have marked three waves of the movement and elaborating them would be another sleep-inducing academic exercise. Feminism deals a lot about equality but we are not equal all along. We should admit it. We are two different animals thinking about different things though we speak the same language. This does not imply there should be some sort of supremacy or hegemony; in fact, it is just the opposite.

I would re-state that we are what we are, no more, no less. As a man, would it be sexist to say only the fittest would survive? It would depend a lot on each individual. You have to blame yourself if you cannot get up after falling. Again, you have to, if you cannot retort.

Hometown Blues

When the world is laid bare, we cannot simply overlook the condition in my native place. We would raise our head and tell everyone that our women are so equal; unlike in other parts of India, where being a girl is no less than a curse. It is just like India is boasting of being the largest democracy. So, we would be missing the wood for the trees if we really believe in this statement of equality. Male chauvinism is seemingly a way of our collective life.

Side note: The other day in Imphal, a research fellow was killed and tossed on a roadside. The photo of her lifeless body, with charred face and arms, was nauseating with netizens, as always, sharing the photos and making no discretion whatsoever to have some decency or respect for the departed soul.

Report Card

Last year in India, there were never-ending reports of domestic violence every month in one way or the other, with women always on the receiving end. In 2019, there were 4.05 lakh cases related to crimes against women according to the reports of the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), out of which 1.26 lakh, or nearly 30% of the total cases, were related to domestic violence.

Some reports indicate the domestic assault cases in Imphal are as well rising unabated. In the first nine months of 2020, there were 63 complaints registered with the Manipur State Commission for Women. We are talking about a small capital city of a province. It has a population of 418,739 according to the 2011–2021 census.

What could be the reason, if not for the ridiculous comparison with mainland India, to say our women are more than bed warmers in a severely conflict-torn society? It sounds like we are bragging just to cover up our impotency. The fact is that the womenfolk are also happily submitting themselves to almost anything because that is the culture, that is the tradition, that is something that makes us look good in front of others. What would you really expect from a highly unstable society?

I would love to believe the thought propagated by a Manipuri socio-politico-cultural group, the Universal Friendship Organisation, or UFO, in short. They say we are evolving continually and one day, all the people in the world would speak only one language. I dream, this would come true. Right now, we are in some unavoidable circumstances displaying a banner that reads more like a sexual crisis. Even if we speak the same language, men arrive from Venus, and women from Mars and the resulting conflicts are obvious: sexual discrimination, movement for women emancipation, sex wars and conflicts and what not. What do you think we should do to interpret coexistence for the sake of everybody’s welfare?

Ignoring what Henry Kissinger had to say about the battle of the sexes, there are so many people who the womenfolk would be compelled to challenge and seek answers from. From the likes of Sigmund Freud who boasted of penis power to those typical man of a patriarchal society, the list of obstruction is endless. It is all about individual power to me, though I belong to a highly community-based orthodox society. I should admit the person sitting close to me is just another person. Another human being, nothing more, nothing less.

Conclusion

The likes of Carolyn Kizers and Marge Piercys would help in carrying the message forward. Yet, we know even after more than thousands of years of existence, we are not sure how we can live together, if not for the rigid socially-sanctioned institutions of family and marriage. Perhaps, the movement needs more voice, more from outside the deadly boring universities and colleges. Butler, Beauvoir, Steinem and others have as well laid the foundation.

But those can only be a framework at its best. If we say a woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle in the local context, it will lose all the significance. Ask any girl and regardless of the region they belong to, while referring to the India context, they are always compelled to get married ASAP otherwise they will become a spinster at 25!

In my native place, the poetess-triumvirate of Thoibi, Binodini and Pramodini had made a mark but there has been no remarkable change. Would it be good, if the feminist movement steers away from foreign-origin ideologies and starts directly from some firm native socioeconomic and politico-cultural foundation? You bet!