Feminism, the tag!

"You've been tagged on Overdrive on 'Feminism'- Usha"

Ever since I read these words in my inbox, I've been, well, kind of suddenly conscious of 'females' around me, when I should think it a pleasant surprise since I rate myself 'quite a feminist'. Of the singers that are females, the workforce at hospital, the female doctors, the women in the family. Its not like they are a rare species but the word makes me think about how these people are where they are today, whom did they struggle against, et al.Doesn't everyone of us have atleast one story to relate when asked about the discrimination? I can tell how it hurts to hear a male professor tell us, female students, that we need to be at home, doing our jobs there, if we can't measure up to men (all this came about because we did not answer one question, while the guys did not answer most of those asked!)- Of course, you could even take it for a challenge, and work yourself more severely, and outdo, which helps anyway. [Thank you, Prof. :P ;)]
I've never really found a meaning with holding a gender bias. I stand for a human, an individual that has immense capacity within his/herself to make or break anything he/she wishes to. Feminism, as a trend,(the mike-holding females that shout their lungs out) seems to highlight a kind of 'weakness' that never was. Gaining incentives on the basis of gender seems so much like driving a wrong point home, that we are in a certain kind of 'need' for such things.
But of course I think the tag comes handy to those that are aware of such a word. To those that are not, they are well, a weaker sex, in a predominantly patriarchal society. Being the daughter of a woman that is so fiercely independent, I am still of the opinion that 'feminism' is by itself a very high idea. Or why else would the common, below poverty line females that we encounter in the hospital each day come with such atrocious stories. This is not about financial independence either, since I have seen well-heeled relatives that still cower down to their husband's demands, or stay like a prop to go hand in hand to weddings. They do not know,they just submit.
I remember one of my friends asking me once what I thought of such atrocious acts as Rape- And I had said, the only reason is the exploitation of the freedom to have sex. That men , over- assert, women, never assert. Because things like this happen everywhere, even in marriages. Of course, I might be digressing, but what I chose to point out is the undermining of the moral or a basic right to live with as much individuality as each of us is born with.
Talking of the philosophy (words like individual, moral, feminism too)or the amount of reading that has let such ideas occupy our little heads, I really wonder how many of our 'successful' women(by which I mean the everyday examples around us, not the people on TV or in print) have had access to these. Most of them did not, and if you tell them of such a 'emotion' doing rounds, it might even come as a scorn to them.
To me, both feelings, Male Chauvinism or Feminism are extreme and impersonal, I view both of them in the same category of words that never should've been. If chauvinism was the epidemic of the time past, feminism is the current. Epidemics claim lives, they do not address or help any situation, they claim the weaker beings. And that is exactly what occurs when such ideas come up and occupy screen space or limelights.
If each individual, lived, worked, in full realization of his/her role, ability and responsibility, upholding the self-esteem of the fellow beings as well as he/she upholds his/her own, there would be no need for such debates or for that matter need for pumping into our dictionaries words of no actual meaning.

This is entirely a matter of perspective. Thank you for reading. You might want to debate any point up here, which is most welcome. :)

And I should think I've struggled enough to bring this piece up here- With the guys at the power station :P [Its been raining incessantly and hence after 10 power cuts- I post this :PThere you go! ;)]

In keeping with the tagging thing:
I'd like to tag, two :

Rini

Madeeha

:)