We are ‘feminists’ but won’t let go of the privileges we get. We won’t let go of privileges like sitting on the ladies only seats in buses even if there’s an old man standing beside you. If someone else is sitting on the beloved chairs, we will make them stand up bus no matter how heavy the bags in their hands are.
We hate when foreigners are racist against us but do the same. Remember when your relative gave birth and her child was dark? Remember the face you pulled off when realized he/she wasn’t white like they showed in movies and posters? We hate it when people are racist against us but we won’t think twice before discriminating against a north Indian and a south Indian.
We talk about how we should promote equality of sexes but laugh at an abused or raped man. Apparently, a man who faces the same psychological/emotional/physical trauma as an abused woman is laughed at and asked to ‘man up’ because this shouldn’t happen to a man. Yeah, right. That’s some hypocrisy right there. Condemning a crime biased by the gender of the victim.
Most of the youths claim to not be homophobic but will still use the word ‘gay’ or ‘transgender’ as an insult. Yeah, because supporting the LGBTQ+ simply means liking the Facebook pages supporting them and sharing posts so that you get to be ‘cool’. We roll our eyes and run away from the transgender community because even their touch is disgusting. Laughing at an effeminate man and calling him ‘gay’ as an insult is like laughing at your ‘macho behaviour’ and calling you ‘straight’; it just doesn’t make sense.
We claim to be very proud of our culture but censor it as soon as it is portrayed boldly. Our culture promotes love and equality but we start protesting as soon as Article- 377 comes up, or even the Valentine’s Day as a matter of fact.
We encourage and praise only those who take science, but we refuse to answer the children about stereotypes. Talking about sex is a taboo in a country with the second largest population in the world. We curse the government for not doing anything for us, but don’t actually follow what rules they pass. Almost everyone stood in support of Anna Hazare when he talked against corruption in our country, but I’m pretty sure half of them initiated the corruption when they wanted to get out of a speeding ticket.
A nine-day festival, Navratri is celebrated in the honour of Durga, Saraswati and Lakshmi, three Indian FEMALE goddesses but don’t allow menstruating women to enter the temples.
Most of the girls my age want to educate themselves and get amazing degrees and that is a good thing until they say, “Yeah, but I only want a rich partner.” Daughters are taught how to wear appropriate clothes and not go out past 9pm in order to not get raped, but sons aren’t taught to do the same.
Worst of all, we talk about changing the world and making it a better place but not do anything about it.
Written by Durva Bhatt
A bibliophile who is fuelled entirely by caffeine, sarcasm, fandoms and random thoughts.