Monday, July 28, 2014

Gender over chai: Ashini Jagtiani

Sunday mornings are the least demanding of all days. You sleep in, wake up and spend time contemplating on how amazingly tiring your week was. So naturally, when you are expected to wake up at 8 am and attend a seminar at 9, skepticism is bound to arise. I was undoubtedly looking forward to this particular talk since the speaker was one of the founders of The Comedy Factor, which I am a personal fan of. However, SUNDAY mornings.  After ten alarm snoozes and a personal mind battle I got myself out of bed and ready for the seminar. What came next changed my day. Sauhard Fellowship 2014’s first seminar was a session on gender by Preeti Das, a film and gender studies expert.
The session opened with the question- what is gender? And really, come to think of it, what is gender? We hear about gender discrimination and gender equality, about woman empowerment and sexuality, but these are mere topics that fall under the study of gender, they do not define gender. Somehow, we always end up talking about feminism when we open the subject of gender and that is where the very first problem lies. Preeti tells us that gender studies is about understanding both men and women and is not biased towards any one sex. So what is gender? It is not sex, because sex is something biological. Gender is a social and cultural. The session’s opening itself questions some of our basic everyday actions. This lead us to the conclusion that society expects us to behave in a certain manner and each of us play a part and fit into those roles. For instance from the day a child is born his gender role is defined for him or her- blue for the boy, pink for the girl. Stereotyping is the basis of the problem where colors, clothing, food are categorized and associated with either femininity or masculinity.  So the next time you ridicule a boy wearing a V-neck pink t-shirt stop and think why you are teasing him- you have fallen into the trap society has set for you.
Next, the conversation steered into the direction of language and semiotics and how they play a role in developing gender biases. Our languages are also patriarchal along with our society. Why are all Indian abuses directed towards the sister and the mother? Because women are considered a property of the man and directing the abuse towards the woman is equivalent to demeaning the man and tinting his “honor”.
We also talked about the role of the media and advertisements in shaping our thought. Traditionally both men and women are assigned a set of tasks and we are to comply to those roles. There has been an enormous paradox in the issue of woman empowerment. Technologically and professionally women have taken a step ahead, successful women are in every field. However, physically women have taken a step back and fallen into the trap of the beauty myth. From the diet industry to the cosmetic industry, large companies are benefitting from product management. An unattainable beauty standard is set for women where what you are, is just not good enough. You need that face wash to get rid of those pimples- conclusion pimples make you look ugly. You need to drink that soup to lose weight, conclusion- you need to lose weight. That make up will make you look flawless, conclusion- I am not pretty without that make up.  To add to the horror, we have music videos where a hundred men drool  over one woman and objectify her. There you have it- that is what the society expects you to be- perfect and pretty.
Through the session we went on several tangents talking about different kinds of situations we find ourselves in, in our daily lives. For instance, why does the male ego hurt when a woman pays? Is the man expected to pay? Why are girls expected to learn how to cook? How do women become “impure” when they menstruate? The session was concluded on a note that gender is important, however not every situation should be looked at through the lens of gender. Gender sensitization is necessary not the centralization of everything around gender.  A lethargic Sunday morning was suddenly transformed into a productive morning of ideas, theories and experiences.

About the author: Ashini is a student of Economics with a passion in theatre and politics 

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