Today is International Women's Day. So, today is the day when all of us, regardless of gender are hit and dazed by various commercial messages that tell us about women being very important and that we should respect them and also, just to prove that you respect women, you should either get her that diamond (was necklace, suggested by a female colleague)/that attire/that fragrance. I have a very simple quote to describe the importance of women:#1: What would be the state of men without women?
#2: Very, Very Scarce.
I should take the opportunity today to demolish two uber-cheap and crass phrases I hear, and the funny part is that the person who utters them thinks that they are actually complimenting women. Let me elaborate:
Women are the beginning of the Life Cycle: Granted. They are that. No life form can exist, let alone survive, without the female gender. But women are not just a carrier of the future; they are the makers of the present as well. Time and again, given the chance, they have proved themselves to be equal to men, if not better (Insert Joke Here: Women are Not Equal to Men: Who'd downgrade anyway?)
Behind Every Successful Man is a Woman: I have actually never understood the meaning of this phrase. First off, this phrase reeks of the pseudo-women-emancipation we see so much around us. Does this phrase say that a woman should never be at the helm of affairs and should just dote on her husband while he goes to the world to conquer it?
Taking another jibe at it, you may have had many examples of how a woman has made or broken a man, but rarely do we think about the cases where the men have destroyed or at least have a major hand in the destruction of the lives of women. Here are some examples.
Britney Spears: I still think that if she did not marry Kevin Federline, she would still be present somewhere on the celebrity fame list, and no, this is not a fan's rant. I just recently got the chance to hear some of her works, and I should say, I was impressed. She is also one of the few dancers who could match steps with Madonna - Kiss or no Kiss, Kabala or no Kabala.
I think, why Britney Spears married Kevin Federline may be one of the world's greatest mysteries. One was a global diva; another was a backup dancer with almost nothing to his credit. Of course, the eternal optimist and women's emancipation agent would have argued that nobody knows what qualities Britney Spears found in Kevin Federline, even with the dark and mysterious 'you'll see, you'll see, Kevin will one day prove himself'. Sad to say, he has not. His only claim to infamy was the Popozao single that was a grand hit on YouTube, as was the incident of him giving free tickets to his concert, post Britney Spears.
There may be thousands of such cases where women have been stopped, deterred, not allowed and advised not to pursue their dreams and ambitions. There may be scores of women who have given up good, safe and progressive jobs to save money on a babysitter or to 'serve the needs' of the family she is married in.
Many would argue that this rarely happens, and I will beg to differ. And this problem isn't just in the rural areas or any specific countries, though it may be at its peak in Asia and the Middle East. There are so many instances in other first world countries too. Speaking of Asia, and India in particular, this country is supposed to be one of the fastest progressing countries. Yet, this weird way of living still exists in India, and not only the rural area, but it is very much present in Urban India too.
If the US has Britney Spears, India too has quite many examples. Here is one classic one:
Bhagyashree Patwardan: This name will not ring a bell in anyone's mind, and certainly not outside India. Bhagyashree made her debut in Maine Pyar Kiya alongside the hunk of today, Salman Khan (Now that name surely rings a bell all over the world, and I rest my case). This movie was a rage, a cult hit, with it being one of the first movies in the eighties and nineties that had actual movie merchandise being sold, like caps and t-shirts. Coming from a conservative family, she quickly married Himalay, and laid down the rule that she'd not work in any movie without her husband as the male lead, and that was the end of her story.
Of course, this does not mean that Bhagyashree was/is/will be as famous as Britney Spears. This comparison is a write-up about the situation in the lives of these two women, pertaining to the men in their life.
Truth be told, there are so many striking coincidences to the two couples that one cannot help but just shake their head in disbelief. The couple came in a couple of movies which flopped miserably at the box office, and today Bhagyashree is struggling to make a comeback and works at the Teleshopping Network and television serials, a far cry from her cult-popularity days of the nineties.
This brings me to the*age-old though that 'Women are their Own Worst Enemies'. And the next time I hear 'You don't understand, Roy, life is different for women' I will be ripping my head off.
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