[Anika]

#32583

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Periods. They’re a regular part of life for women. They face it once a month for seven days in a week. Here are some ways you can take care of yourself while on your period!

Hygiene:
This is one of the most important steps. Always be clean and remember to stay healthy. Remember to change your pad every 4-8 hours. If you want, you can use menstrual cups or tampons as it is convenient and more comfortable than pads.

Rest:
During your period, you will feel tired. Do not stress yourself. Relax, take care of yourself and rest. It is essential for you to get rest because you will be more energetic later.

Nutrition:
Eat food which is rich in micro-nutrients. Of course, you might indulge in food like ice-cream or fast food but it’s recommended that you do not. By eating food rich in micro-nutrients, your cramps lessen and you become much more active.

Exercise:
Of course, you need not do intense exercise. Yoga is a good exercise and it does help with the symptoms you are experiencing, making it easier for you and reducing cramps.

One can follow these steps if they experience painful periods. It will help you in the future and your symptoms will be less.

[Anika]

#32577

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Period poverty is the lack of access to sanitary products, menstrual hygiene education, toilets, hand washing facilities, and, or, waste management.

Period poverty has always been present in India. India always has had a backwards attitude towards menstruation. Girls are ostracized from regular activities during their monthly period. Society thinks that menstruation is something impure. As a result of this, girls miss school. A 2014 report by the NGO Dasra titled Spot On! found that 70 percent of mothers with menstruating daughters considered menstruation ‘dirty’. They are also supposed to be discreet about this and are not supposed to talk about menstruation around men.

There is a lack of awareness on menstruation. Many girls who live in rural areas have no knowledge on periods until they get it for the first time. In fact, in the 2014 report of the NGO Dasra, they found that almost 23 million girls drop out of school due to a lack of menstrual hygiene, awareness and lack of sanitary products.

In many poor areas, there are many who can’t afford sanitary products so they keep reusing the same material which is dangerous and causes infections. There is also a lack of water in these areas and a menstruating girl needs basic sanitation.

What can be done is to make menstrual products of all varieties (such as tampons or menstrual cups) much easier to buy and make it more available all across India. They can raise more awareness. It not only helps girls understand more about menstruation, but boys can be more aware about periods which will help reduce the stigma around periods. They can introduce more water schemes to help conserve water. They can also build more toilets and hand washing areas to make it easier for women. Menstruation is nothing to be ashamed of.

[Anika]

#32543

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Roles like cooking, cleaning and housework are generally associated with women. More often than not, it would be rare to see a man doing housework.
It starts at childhood, when a girl is given a cookery set to play with, when she is taught how to cook to take care of her in-laws in the future. I notice that the same treatment isn’t given with men. Men are taught to be tough, but they do not need to know how to cook because they work right? Wrong. Working women still have to do the housework even after a long day at work.

Cooking is a basic life skill. If you learn how to cook, it will make things easier for you. Regardless of the gender, the kitchen is and should be a gender neutral place.
I also want to talk about the different attitudes society has for men and women. For women, cooking is just a duty but for men, it’s art. If someone is good at something we can appreciate them but it’s baffling to see how society treats women.

Yes, we are heading towards a gender neutral kitchen but there’s still stigma around it. Basic life skills shouldn’t be treated as gender roles. If we associate roles with gender, how can we ever achieve gender equality?
So, gender neutral kitchens is a must.

[Anika]

#32530

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Throughout history, transgender people have been discriminated and still are not treated even with little respect by the people of India. With the problematic transgender laws in place, It proves to be difficult for transgender people. We can only imagine how the case is for transgender people in prison.

Transgender people face a lot of discrimination in prison. They are often misgendered, people often make assumptions of what gender a transgender person might be based solely on their genitalia, which is very wrong because transgender people do not identify with the gender they had at birth and even if they have genitalia of a gender, it doesn’t mean they identify as that gender.

As a result of this,transgender women are put in male prisons wherein their safety is at danger. Transgender people are raped, molested and abused in prisons by the prison guards and prisoners.

They are usually denied fundamental rights that cisgender people have. When they’re sick, they’re neglected. It’s as if they do not even exist for some ignorant people. When they need legal aid, it is denied. The people who belong to marginalized groups are also denied basic rights.

We need to understand that firstly, transgender people deserve their basic rights. There needs to be a separate block for transgender and non-binary people. They do speak out but nobody listens. If we raised more awareness on this topic, it would be good. I hope that there will be no discrimination in the future.

[Anika]

#32468

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Children are easily influenced. They learn a lot from their parents, teachers, elders, and the media. So, you must be careful with what you allow your child to view and you should be careful with what you say around your child. They look up to you, so they take what you say seriously. Gender bias happens at home and school and they shape the child into the person they will become in the future.
Teachers need to understand that all girls and boys are different. They’re unique and they all offer different perspectives. Not one person is the same. But, some people have a gender bias. They might ask the boys and girls different questions based on their gender rather than asking all of them to get different perspectives.
Some teachers might think that boys might be interested in maths and science and girls might be interested in arts and humanities. But, that’s not the case. The subjects are taken by people who are interested in them. Subjects should not be gendered.
They also conform to gender stereotypes by assigning roles to them without getting to know any of them. Girls do not like sports because it’s a ‘boy’ thing, that boys are physically stronger so they give the tasks like moving desks, carrying books to boys and give ‘lighter’ tasks to girls. If you want to promote gender equality, include all of them. Also, boys are usually given more leadership roles. By including both genders, you get great leaders.
I feel that if there were classes one could take to learn more about gender equality or inequality, it would be good. It would help them out a lot in life. If you did not base your assumptions on the genders based on stereotypes. I think gender bias would cease to exist.

[Anika]

#32458

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The Male Gaze is defined as the perspective of a notionally typical heterosexual man considered as embodied in the audience or intended audience for films and other visual media, characterized by a tendency to objectify or sexualize women.
Yes, the male gaze is still relevant even today and is seen in many blockbuster movies in many languages. Most of the male-dominated films feature the male gaze in them.
The male gaze has three perspectives: one of the man behind the camera, one of the characters in the film or the film itself, and one of the audience. Women are objectified. It is as if they’re not actual people with feelings but objects of sexual desire. It is clear that some female characters in a male-dominated film are introduced just for male desire and contribute nothing to the plot. The male gaze is not just objectifying. The male gaze portrays women in media from male perspectives. For example, Rahul had no interest in Anjali in Kuch Kuch Hota Hai when she was a tomboy but a few years later, he realized that she was beautiful. Because people think that women have to look a certain way for men to be interested in them.
I’d like to talk about the female gaze. You might be wondering what it means, maybe it means that the genders are switched and men are objectified? No, the female gaze is the response to the male gaze. It sees women as people rather than objects of sexual desire. We have seen that characters are portrayed better in a female-dominated movie usually. Female Gaze has more to do with emotions rather than objectification. With female-dominated films, it provides more representation for women as actors, crew, directors, and cinematographers.
By having more women in the film industry, it proves to be an advantage. We can get much better stories.
By doing all this, we can improve films and prevent objectification by using the female gaze more and the male gaze a lot less.

[Anika]

#32428

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Women deserve the right to do what they want with their bodies. Whatever they do, they deserve the basic right of deciding what is right for them. It is their body and they own it, not society.
Women deserve the right to decide whether or not they want to have children or get pregnant. Motherhood is a choice and not an obligation, so they deserve the basic right of choosing, whether they’re married or not.
Women can avoid pregnancy by many methods. Some of them including condoms, diaphragm, and cervical cap prevent sperm from reaching the egg. They are 70-90% effective against pregnancy based on the type of method.
Women can also use hormonal methods which include birth control pills, injections, or vaginal rings. These types of methods work by stopping ovulation. They are 90% effective.
They can also use long-term contraceptive methods like IUDs (Intrauterine Devices). IUDs work by putting a small device in the uterus. They prevent the sperm from entering the uterus and can last 5-10 years depending on the type of IUD.
If they want a permanent solution, they can undergo sterilization. It works by blocking the fallopian tubes. It is extremely effective and is the go-to method women choose when they do not want to have children.
All these methods are effective but they do not protect against STIs (Sexually Transmitted Infections) aside from condoms. If anyone wants to try these methods, they have to proceed with caution.

[Anika]

#32420

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Yes, in my opinion, they should be entitled to menstrual leave.
Periods are extremely painful and it lasts for a week every month. Menstrual leave should at least be optional and if any woman needs to take leave, she can have the option of not working those days. Some might say that one day is enough but each woman’s body is different. They might experience more pain on the second day than the first.
Many women get cramps, nausea, or headaches during their menstrual cycle. Some might even experience all three. Women face this pain every month. So, isn’t it necessary to implement menstrual leave?
Some might criticize this saying that it’s unfair that women get a paid day off (this is dependent on the company) and that men work so hard but are not paid more than women. I understand the issues men put across, but I don’t think they’ve ever experienced periods. It is painful, and some can’t even move around because the pain is that bad. Men and women are biologically different, so it doesn’t make sense to compare how unfair you think it is that women get menstrual leave. I do not think you’d have the same reaction if you experienced periods.
Some might say that it doesn’t even hurt that much and taking leave ‘just’ for that is strange. For some women, they might not feel any pain, but that is only a few of them.
Menstruation is a natural process and is not something one should be ashamed of. If we educated everyone about periods, it would be useful.

[Anika]

#32376

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Conversion therapy is the practice of trying to change an individual’s sexual orientation from homosexual or bisexual to heterosexual using psychological, physical, or spiritual intervention.
Conversion therapy is still practiced in India. Although homosexuality is now legal in India, people still think that it’s immoral and that it should and can be ‘cured’ if treatment is given.
It is very cruel that people police someone’s life because of their sexuality. This is because they have a heteronormative mindset and think that anyone other than cisgendered straight people are abnormal.
If anyone thinks that there are only a few people are gay and the rest are straight, they’re wrong, very wrong. We do not know how the situation is. There are many still finding themselves and there are some who are not out yet, so we can’t make these kinds of assumptions.
It is infuriating that people use religion as a scapegoat for their bigoted beliefs. It is not said in any religious texts that you should be this vile and hateful so why are you doing this?
When parents find out their child is gay, they disown their child. They try everything to make their child ‘normal’. They send their children to conversion therapy. Whether it actually works or not, 98% of them suffered psychological damage after conversion therapy.
It is strange to think that conversion therapy would work. Sexuality is not a choice. If it was, don’t you think that people would want to be straight? But it isn’t that easy. I think that if it actually worked on people like society says it does, they would have been questioning their sexuality. Also, multi gender attraction aka bisexuality exists. They are still queer even if they’re not just attracted to the same sex but also the opposite sex.
We need to understand that we can’t choose who we are attracted to. Conversion therapy is not helpful at all. Why should someone change themselves because society doesn’t accept them? Conversion therapy only has negative results; the concept of this means that homosexuality is something which shouldn’t exist and should be treated. This leads to depression, anxiety and even suicide in queer kids.
Learn to accept that not everyone is straight, and that’s okay.

[Anika]

#32356

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Sexism is present in every work field. It is rampant especially in the Indian Music Industry.
Female singers hardly sing in films. Journalist Gurman Bhatia had analysed more than 24,000 Bollywood songs from the 50 highest-grossing movies of every year since 1950 and discovered that the amount of songs sung by women is rapidly declining. People might say it’s dependent on the movie’s story line but even female-led films face a lack of female singers in their movies.
However, it was not always the case. In the 50s and 60s, the most popular films had female lead singers such as the Mangeshkar sisters who dominated the Indian Music Industry and sung more than their male counterparts.
Many in the Industry underestimate women and their capability just because of their gender. They wouldn’t have the same attitude with the men in the music industry.
In fact, if you were to name a song sung by a female singer, it would most likely be an item song. Item songs are very problematic. These songs glorify harassment, stalking and rape. They objectify women. Just about every iconic Bollywood song has misogynistic lyrics. But, it is still popular even today. I think it’s because not many know of the meaning of the songs. As a result, this influences teenagers and they might enact the behavior. This is what happens when there is a lack of female singers, songwriters, producers, engineers and directors.
Many female singers are calling out the sexism in the music industry. They are questioning the lack of representation for female singers and male singers are doing it too. There needs to be an equal amount of singers from both genders, not just in female led films or item songs. We also need to be mindful of the media we consume.

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