For Feminism’s Sake: Introducing the Global and the Local
♀ Contents
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
Sigh.
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This is the age of cardioconnection Image from Anonymous ART of Revolution |
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.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.
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Sex, Interchange and Quote-ship |
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.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.![]() |
Inspire and lead |
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Useful Links
- A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century, by Donna Haraway
- Gendering, courtship and pay equality: developing attraction theory to understand work-life balance and entrepreneurial activity by Dr Rory Ridley-Duff
- Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity by Judith Butler
- A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf
- Random websites and blogs: Bitch Media, Finally, A Feminism 101 Blog, Feministing, Feministe, Feminist Frequency, the Guardian on Feminism
- The Social Basis of the Woman Question by Alexandra Kollontai
- Women and Marxism on Marxist Internet Archive
- The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir
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