Breeding Bias—The inbred acceptance of gender bias
Right from the very day of her inception into her mother’s womb, begins her unfathomable struggle for existence and a non-coerced identity, the latter possible only if she is granted the right to survival. Even the ostensibly strong bond of the umbilical chord cannot come to her rescue, another result of a she unable to stand for herself and the life she carries, as the mother herself is a carrier of inherited traditions whom she has come to value more than the life divinity entrusted her with.
This is unfortunately the beginning that most girls of our society have. Owing to stricter laws , (what pity that a Devi worshiping society needs them to protect our real life Devis) even if the girl makes it alive to the world , her life stands marred by the obsolete notions of righteousness and she succumbs to the expectations of the orthodox community and is forever entrapped within the cage of conventions. As she grows up, at every step of her life a contemporary he is given a more preferential treatment and every time she dares to raise questions , the society’s shackles are there to bind her ideological growth and her inquisitiveness is met with strong disapproval and with the passage of time she comes to accept the unequal treatment meted out to her and at this point of acceptance two things happen – the death of her individuality and the birth of yet another “well bred” being , which though unfortunate is very well welcomed and celebrated . This is the irony of our society where the eve’s individuality is so easily compromised on and they are either to believe what they are told silently or be prepared to be labelled with the most inappropriate kind of labels. She often finds her dignity at stake and it is then that the “seekhaya padhaya “(taught and learnt) doctrine of her being inferior to him comes into play and with the constant inhuman reminders she loses her voice of reason and is forced into pushing all her thoughts down a bottomless pit . Her outlook no more remains her own but is the collectively accepted and collectively appreciated outlook of the society which is practically enforced upon her and she becomes merely another mouthpiece of the society. The tragedy that begins in the womb continues throughout her life. At each point of her life she is made to believe that whatever kind of discrimination she might face is the norm of the society and she has no right whatsoever to stand up against it or to seek equality of any kind or in any manner. This kind of ” expected behaviour ” grows out of the absurd notions of “accepted behaviour” where a woman has to necessarily follow the protocol of silence and suffering. It becomes some kind of a vicious cycle passing it’s acceptance from great grandmothers to grandmothers to mothers to daughters and so on and so forth. The casualty of this passage being a woman’s natural intellect which is compromised on from the very beginning and at times she is so engrossed in fitting herself into this frame of “socially acceptable” that she is herself unaware of her own loss. Her own intuitions are no more her own and as a result her decisions too aren’t hers but an outcome of what is found suitable on the society’s scale.The society’s dictorial list is a long one ; the way she is “supposed to” dress , what she is to speak and when she is to speak , how she is to walk and how not, where she can go and where she cannot , what is right for her and what isn’t , things she should do and things she shouldn’t , dreams she can pursue and dreams she cannot , the woman she can be and the woman she cannot. All this legitimated under the garb of “yahi hota aaya hai yahi hota rahega” (this happens and shall continue to happen). The practice of bias is so deep rooted into our society that it has ruined our social fabric and all the while we all have stood as mute spectators while she continues to be subjected to gender bias on all levels. It’s high time that right from the beginning she is taught to value her own independent identity so that she no more compromises on her individuality and gives life and light to her thoughts and builds up her own ideology and is confident enough to speak her own mind , make her own decisions and live her life without being subjected to inequalities of any kind.
————–
