Feminism: Reel to Real Life

Feminism, a well known system, most talked topic but most underestimated system of the society. Many of us often confused by its feminine name and conceptualize it as in terms of only one side of the coin i.e. only female. But this word is more comprehensive than it appears. This term has the power of changing the whole nation, but unfortunately its power is limited to its theoretical definition only. Theoretically, it is an advocacy of female’s rights on the ground of equality of gender. It is about equality of females not supervision of females. It is about equal rights to everyone irrespective of their gender not only one gender. These days; when we are living in so called “democratic society’’, this term gets inherently and obviously some importance. But that too limited to words.

Every modern human, (here modern is the word used for them who consider themselves as the knowledgeable one in terms of rights and opportunities), is now-a-days advocates about feminism as females are at the equal platform of every sphere of society.

Wait! Wait! we also consider ourselves as modern (without any doubt)!, but do you ever practice this so called broad term in your real life.

I guess, a big NO!!!!                  (accept this harsh truth☺ ☺)

The reason for having a big difference between what we say and what we do, lies within our society, its beliefs and its traditions. No matter how much educated we are, how much we are aware about our rights, we have to limit our actions and beliefs in accordance of the society, in which we live. We have to change our thoughts, actually modify them, according to well established facts and traditions of the society.

Being a female, undoubtedly we have to advocate for our equal rights and equal opportunities; basically we have to be a well practiced feminist, but to be true being a female and being a feminist are two different sides of the same coin. According to today’s society, you can only talk about your equal rights until and unless they don’t exist as in opposition of what society says. The moment when your rights contradicts the established traditions of society, you and your feminist point of view becomes out of the box point, a point which often invites many contradictions and debates. When a female starts talking about equal rights in a family, her family declares her as a destroyer of the society/family, a block in the well being of the society/family. In that case, no matter what are the view points of that female, no matter what position she experiences in her profession, no matter how progressive is she, no matter how much clear is she in her thoughts and no matter how much she thinks for the welfare of her family, only thing which actually matters is her stand on her rights. Because she is a female, she can’t talk about her rights, she can’t put her point on crucial matters as her point of view contradicts the view point of the society.

Is this the feminist society we talk about? Is this the society which we consider as the progressive society? The need of the hour is not to just talk about feminism and other related terms, but to actualize the implementation of these important concepts.

Yes, we protest for feminism, we talk about feminism, but what about its practice in real life. We are experiencing it as in its reel life form but its real life is hard and full of stumbling blocks.

                           Try to transform the reel life of the actress named “Feminist” into real life.  

Dr. Neha Gupta

Assistant Professor

JIE, JEMTEC

Greater Noida