Every year on March 8th Women’s Day is celebrated with great vigour by men and women alike, to appreciate the women in their lives and the work they do. But it should be noticed that as soon as the day is over, they return to their daily old lives that continue to exploit women. It is unknown to most people that they do this because it comes to them so naturally. When a woman speaks about feminism, it is always questioned by men, with claims that we have already achieved the peak of equality and that women’s demands now are merely fake and for attention. They have even mansplained the difference between real feminism and pseudo-feminism to prove their point through the male gaze.
Yes, the women of this generation have it easier than they did in medieval times because at least they’re not burned alive for being ‘witches’ because they express actual opinions and feelings. But this does not mean that the oppression ended. Although the world has become more liberal and accepting of equal rights for men and women, exploitation is still prevalent. It can be as small as women doing unpaid labour as housewives, being paid less for doing the same job as a man and not being respected for the choices they make about their clothes, sexuality, or the partner they choose or as imperative as women being victims of endless hate-crimes like sexual assaults, kidnappings, and murders owing to misogyny. Either way, the fact that this is a male-dominated world is undeniable. As the division and discrimination based on caste, religion, or race upsurge day-by-day in this hateful world, women are the ones on the receiving end of all the violence resulting from it.
Women were seen as fragile and docile creatures that could be easily manipulated and controlled. Now that they are fighting back the endless patriarchy our mothers and grandmothers were put through, men feel that their manliness and feeling of superiority is threatened, which is the main reason men resort to anger and violence when women speak up against inequality.
Domestic violence jokes made by men usually paint the women in the family as the perpetrator when behind closed doors, the men exploit them and try to prove their power over them.
When men claim that feminism is irrelevant and unnecessary in today’s world where women have it easier than they did centuries ago, it is essential to ask them if they would be willing to drink muddy water if the stones were removed and the water was still passed through filter paper. It is still better than drinking muddy water, is it not? And when they respond that it is still not safe water, it brings us to our point that no matter how many centuries passed, and it is much better than it was in the past for women, the world is still not safe enough, and thus we need feminism.
It is high time, everyone calls themselves feminists and we fight the patriarchy together.