Genesis of Misogyny and its Aftermath
Whenever I am in a metro or walking down the road to my home, I always feel exposed to a certain level of threat to my life with a number of eyes boring at my face, my legs, and my back. God forbid if I am wearing a sleeveless or a three/fourth bottom to make a purchase at the nearby store, people would actually slow down their vehicles driving past me. Besides feeling insecure about my well-being, I am often subjected to misogyny at my workplace every day in a whole new way. There is always a person who reminds me of my gender, i.e.
"You are a woman, you will get the approval on that long leave application.",
"Don’t worry, you are a woman, the boss won’t scream at you."
"Oh, come on! You are a woman, you shouldn’t be worried about less pay, I am sure your man will earn the money for you."
In India, there is a tendency to see misogyny and fixation of gender roles as a tradition and expression of Indian culture. A blurred lens is used to examine the sexist problems prevalent in the nation since the dawn of time. Misogynist oppression is deep-rooted in our everyday lives so much so that it becomes second nature. It may come as a subtle remark intended to mock like ‘Cooking is your job not mine’ or a legitimate threat of raping a woman for standing up for herself and her fellow mates. Sometimes we don’t see it, but most times we choose not to speak about it. A majority of this bolstered by men to portray their masculinity to other men or to patronize women around them.
Misogyny is something that is exposed to us since our childhood and is continuously being propagated by men who are the only ones benefitting from it. This behaviour manifests early on when a person still in their teenage years is asked to ‘Man Up’ or ‘Behave like a Girl.’ Roles are defined, emotions are restricted, and power is invested. It starts with a group of schoolboys deriving fun from touching and teasing their female peers and goes on to an older man raping or threatening his family members. India, the second-most populous country of the world is a place where about 100 women are raped every day. More than a decade ago, the government launched the Adolescent education program to impart sex education in schools. The order was banned in over 13 states in the country on the grounds of being against the Indian Culture.
Sex education is a program that educates young children about their own sexuality, sexual health, and, more importantly, sexual rights. The importance of this program resurfaces in the latest rather alarming incident wherein a group of 15-year-old boys, threatened to rape women in a private chat. This incident should make us question the entire foundation of Indian parenting and upbringing. In the lack of proper support from their parents and teachers, kids resort to pornography to learn about sex. In today’s world, it is not hidden that young boys and girls are exposed to explicit content from a young age, without any expert guidance. It’s high time we ponder about what exactly is stopping us from realising that our salvation from gender-related atrocities lies in bridging the gap between formal and sexual education?
Gender roles are solidified as these young boys make use of their misdirected masculinity and start enjoying privileges as if they have earned them. They feel entitled to their unrestricted mobility, freedom, huge opportunity pool, and mere existence in a male-dominated patriarchal society. Ironically, this unacknowledged privilege of men, force women to curtail their movement and sometimes even let go of opportunities that befit.
In a country already bedeviled with violence against women, movies in the Hindi Cinema continue glorifying and titillating the vulnerability of women. There are movies like Kabir Singh that normalize toxic masculinity and brutality against women. The so-called item songs in movies like Munni badnam hui and Fevicol se portray the sexual objectification of women as an accepted norm. Disturbing examples such as WhatsApp forwards that stereotype married women as stupid and negatively temperamental, which gives men a reason to bond over and is believed to be a harmless propagation of mere jokes.
It is highly alarming that women of the world’s largest democracy have to navigate through masculinity every single day to protect themselves from being stared at, groped, raped, objectified, teased, or in some cases, even murdered. There are hardly any women who have never been subjugated to sexual abuse or violence. Moreover, many of them are put through this traumatic experience at a very young and tender age. Dealing with such unshakeable beliefs requires not only women but also men to take steps to analyse the problem as and when it arises and breaks this ecosystem of patriarchy and chauvinism. Perhaps, it’s time we raise a question, that isn’t not going against it also a form of feeding and propagating?
