With
an over-enthusiastic news media which is always eager to please an overtly
voyeuristic audience, we are often presented with celebrities cornered and
asked about issues on which they don’t know much. The same has been the case
with Lisa Haydon who was asked about her views on Feminism. And a few awkward
sentences tumbled out. We were presented with her ‘profound wisdom’ of how
people make unnecessary noise about Feminism and how it is overtly misused as a
concept. How trying to be like a man is not Feminism – now she got this one
right!! And the icing on the cake – how we were given these bodies by God (?)
to give birth to children and nurture them. Lastly she will never be a career
feminist and would love to cook for her family, based on the assumption that in
case of career and family, the choice is always either-or.
Sane feminists across the board
responded to her by analyzing her fallacious statements. It seems she is
lacking at her very understanding of feminism. Feminism never asks women to be
like men – rather it talks of working out mechanisms to accommodate and respect
diversity on the gender spectrum and that does not end with binaries like men-women.
Feminism also does not overvalue working women and undermine the agency of
women who choose to be homemakers. Rather wasn’t it a feminist stand that house
work should also be counted while computing National Income of a nation.
In an inherently unequal society
like our own, no noise about gender equality is too much rather all the noise
around feminism is not enough to shake our patriarchal society out of slumber.
Lisa Haydon’s statement was shocking to many who assumed an educated
westernized modern woman like her would be a crusader of gender equality. But
to me her statements were anything but shocking. Very few female actors can do
a little more than dancing around the trees and are fine with being a trophy in
the movies. Bollywood lacks in a big way in women-centric movies. Female actors
by labeling oneself as a feminist do not want to foreclose getting roles in
misogynistic movies which makes big bucks in the Box Office. Feminists are
still regarded as women who are not so feminine, men haters and are way too
dominating.
Coming to another pearl of wisdom
from Miss Haydon, we are given these bodies to give birth. These very words
brought to my mind Margaret Atwood’s famous dystopian novel The Handmaid’s
Tale which talked of a dreaded society in which women are actually treated
as breeders. Feminists have pointed out the dangers of such a stand which
romanticizes biological motherhood. It not only indulges in biological reductionism
but pushes us back to sexual division of labour – our biological selves will
define our sociological as well as economic roles. It also puts in place a
social hierarchy based on a biological capacity of women. No wonder being
sterile have portrayed many women as unlucky and it is still a big taboo.
However are bodies only about having babies? One
does not have to be a feminist to know that the answer will be in negative.
When women have started talking about female sexuality and women’s desires,
sounding like a Catholic priest of medieval times and declaring that sex should
only be for procreation will at best result in chuckles from all around. Bodies
are also invested with multiple meanings. For women across the globe, bodies have
been powerful weapons to make their voices heard. Irom Sharmila Chanu denied
her body food and forced the entire world to take note of her struggle. It’s a
different thing that our government continues to turn a blind eye and a deaf
ear to her legit demands.
The women of Meira Paibi stripped
their bodies of clothes to challenge the Assam Rifles’ Army and protest against
the rape and murder of Thangjam Manorama. Carrying banners stating ‘Indian Army
Rape Us’, these women used their naked bodies as lethal weapons to shame the
perpetrators of human rights violation. In such an unequal combat, the naked
women emerged much more powerful than the gun trotting Army officials. The
entire nation had to stand still and take note that the tiny Eastern state of
Manipur is burning. FEMEN activists laid bare their bodies to protest against
imposition of dress codes and purdah, while Muslim women covered their bodies
to state that purdah is not always imposed. Women across the board have made
powerful statements by using their bodies as medium.
Women's bodies are much more than
wombs. But at the same time motherhood need not be belittled. What is to be
given importance is the agency of women to choose their own route. And Feminism
does that. Dear Miss Haydon, sorry to say but neither Feminism nor bodies are
only about babies.
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