The President’s son says “the protestors are not students, these women are dented and painted and it has become fashionable to light candles” – his sister is outraged, his father asks him to apologise and all TV channels and their motley panel members get another bone to chew on !! Hey, what he said is exactly how majority of the menfolk think, and the patronising goes on overtly, covertly, loudly and subtlely ! What’s to discuss ? We never raised a hue and cry when people said, “Indira Gandhi is the only man in the cabinet” – why do you need to be like a man to be considered a great leader ? Courage, control and assertiveness are not qualities of men alone …. The 23 year old battling for her life has more courage than many men soldiers !!
Sisters, lets not ask men like the President’s son to apologise, he will do that easily and it means nothing. What we need to do is turn the next generation that we bring into this world into true men who treat a woman as an equal in the real sense of the word. Get your sons to do all that you ask your daughters to do and let your daughters get every opportunity that your sons do.
Some of us may be married to the “President’s son” type man – tough situation, try some education. Take him to these protests, adopt a baby girl if you don’t have a daughter, take him to counselling centres where they counsel rape victims…. If nothing works, well, have the gumption to walk out of the marriage.
I don’t have a problem with debates on gender equality – I just feel they serve no purpose, gender inequality is a reality, talking about it is not going to help much, take constructive action. Stomp the man who tries to treat you as a second class citizen and deep down start believing you are equal – many of us don’t and that’s our failing.
Equality starts in our minds and hearts … Remember that, no one can treat you less than what you allow them to and put a permanent dent on the “President’s son” type men and paint them red, the colour of the district that gets created because of men like them and light a candle for sure… To help them find the door :(:(