Equal rights and some unequal music
To be a woman in this age is both a privilege and a challenge. The other day, I came across a casual comment that women are afflicted by mood swings. This made me think: Mood swings are low and happy notes of one’s life. Why put them under gender’s knife?
Mood swings is a term that the dictionary defines as ‘an abrupt and unaccountable change of mood’. All of us undergo mood swings and they are healthy for our mental, emotional and physical being. Such mood swings can play a positive role in promoting problem solving and producing flexible forward planning.
Everybody is prone to mood swings and they happen to be a natural part of most people’s lives. We are sometimes on cloud nine and chiming and at other times low and whining. The rising and falling graph of these swings is a sign of health, happiness and harmony.
Then why are women targeted for having mood swings? Why set boundaries for women? Mood swings is interpreted as the emotional baggage, pulls and pressures women are supposed to carry with them. There is a lack of awareness and empathy on the part of society on certain aspects of a woman’s life well known to all of us. It is widely believed that a woman who is ‘too independent’ is volatile, ambitious, can’t be a good home-maker and is unlikely to adjust.
While we like to perpetuate the myth of gender equality, how true is it in our patriarchal society? We Indians sometimes believe ourselves to be morally superior than people from the West. But a reality check shows that we always inculcate the spirit of sacrifice, submissiveness and sagacious sensibility in our girls. When a woman is accused of mood swings, it is our social constructs that are at fault. Women too have right to respect and mood swings occur irrespective of gender.
My heart asks if all this attention, this seeming support for women causes is just a façade because we are quick to judge women who talk about their experiences. I wonder aren’t there many women in India who must break the mould and stand up for what they wish to be, raise their hand in protest, for in them lies the salvation of the future generation. Being a man is still a wee bit better in this part of world than being a woman of her own will. The times are obviously brighter. Yet, it hasn’t reached a crescendo for a lot of women.
In an equal world there is some unequal music.
Should a woman have a straightjacketed existence to live with dignity? Doesn’t a woman deserve to be at ease with her mood swings, her femininity, fearlessness, free will and freedom? Isn’t it the responsibility of society to make sure that gender justice prevails?
“The reasonable man adapts himself to conditions that surround him…the unreasonable man adapts surrounding conditions to himself. All progress depends on the unreasonable man,” wrote George Bernard Shaw. We need to be unreasonable women who make the surroundings adapt to them hence progress like Shaw said knowing well that every wound is an experience. Light shall enter from that hurt and in the milieu spread fragrance, knowing well how to fight all odds neither believing in fate nor in miracles but only in God.
Happy Women’s Day!
DOESN’T A WOMAN DESERVE TO BE AT EASE WITH HER MOOD SWINGS, HER FEMININITY, FEARLESSNESS, FREE WILL AND FREEDOM? ISN’T IT THE RESPONSIBILITY OF SOCIETY TO ENSURE THAT GENDER JUSTICE PREVAILS?