fake feminism

 “You educate a man; you educate a man. You educate a woman; you educate a generation.”

INTRODUCTION

‘Feminism,’ in simple terms, means that no sex should be treated with any injustice. They should receive equal treatment. But, off late, there is developing a new type of feminism that is rightly called fake-feminism .fake-feminists have a deep desire to remedy all the injustices inflicted on women, often by lashing out and demeaning at men. What they forget is the fundamental essence of the movement towards feminism: equality. Another form of pseudo-feminism is comfort feminism or pseudo feminism  . We often don’t realize it, but pseudo-feminism is all around us, clandestinely hiding behind feminism. The women are crying everywhere for fair rights, but don’t waste a minute telling a guy sitting on a Ladies Reserved seat to vacate it.

Another strong example of pseudo-feminism is that women’s income tax slab is higher than men’s. A woman who earns till 3,00,000-3,50,000 is exempt from tax payment. If both men and women earn the same account, why should it only be the men who pay tax? It leaves a considerable dilemma. Men in India are mostly the earners of prime income. If they pay a nominal wage tax they are left with very little to support their families. However, there are exceptions to the situation, if the true value of feminism is to be complied with, then equality must be taken into account. If a man pays tax for the same wage a woman also earns, then a woman should. Although they are in the minority, some men are also subjected to sexual crimes that are crystal-clear truth. The statistics of cases reported to the police are on the lower side as most people do not report such a crime for fear of being mocked, not believed, and facing the charges themselves instead. Men are often abducted for illicit sexual activity, forced marriages, prostitution, and so on. The number of such victims is really low but we can not ignore that fact. When we speak about rising violence against women, we shouldn’t ignore the fact that men are still subject to the same brutalities somewhere out there. As of 2009, 175 men had been kidnapped and abducted for the purpose of illicit intercourse, according to the 2012 NCRB data. The cases were registered under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) Sec 363 to 369, 371 to 373. Such cases are not dealt with in the same way as the abuse committed on women, even under regulation. No conclusive study has been conducted on the topic yet.

The Rise of Fake Feminism

Feminism has always been and will always be my favourite topic to discuss. It is a dynamic movement and a driver of social change. 

Growing up in a patriarchal society which is extremely orthodox at the same time, the feminist ideology has been very empowering and liberating for me. Just seeing the older generation and comparing it to the present one makes me grateful to lead a life, make decisions and work towards ‘my own dreams’ without needing to seek validation from the men of the house. The belief that a woman’s place is more than just the kitchen, that she is capable of doing great things in and out of the kitchen as any other man can, is gaining huge popularity and practice too. The society that once put its male counterparts in pedestals higher than the women is slowly coming down, or as I like to believe, we are now building pedestals for us women to sit and stand on and view the world as an ocean of opportunities just the way men always have. This, I call it the stepping stone of a more liberal society with faster progress as more minds will be able to contribute for the betterment of the society. 

Since we have somewhat overcome the worst of it (if not all of it), are we using it for good? Or are we exploiting it for worse?

Feminism is rather a controversial topic. Back then when I was a kid I’d look up to people who would talk about the importance of women utilizing their rights, their voices and I’d aspire to be one of those women who spoke and stood in the same assemblies men did without hesitation or fear of their opinions being rejected and degraded. I’d boldly say that I was a feminist and I saw many profess that too. Overcoming the stereotype that always puts women in a vulnerable light and understanding that gender doesn’t decide your potential to do and achieve things, it was something to be proud of. But now it is a different story, things have taken an ugly turn.

Feminism has brought in many good changes, like absolute intolerance to sexual abuse, harassment, eve teasing but a good number of us have started exploiting it so badly and are juicing out every drop of the new female privilege for worse.

Back in 2015 Jasleen Kaur a pseudo-feminist took advantage of this special privilege that women in India had recently started garnering and shamed Sarvjeet Singh. She posted a picture of Mr. Singh on Facebook saying that he harassed her despite him being innocent. Jasleen being a woman in a newly feminist society, it was very easy to believe her and the concept of ‘innocent until proven guilty’ ceased to stop existing for Mr. Singh.

 He was defamed, lost his job, shamed and bullied by thousands on the internet and in real life too. He was also called A ‘PERVERT’ and a “POTENTIAL RAPIST” on national television. It was only after four years that he was proven innocent. This brought to light the misuse of feminism on a much larger scale. I remember seeing this case plastered all over social media and some even going to the extent of shaming feminism. I even started questioning my idea of Feminism too. I started asking myself if I was a pseudo-feminist myself and if I was using it for my selfish motives too. In a way the awareness of fake-feminism and seeing the lives it ruined showed me the ugliness of such a beautiful and powerful movement has kept me grounded and mindful of the power that I possess as a woman and the influence I have as a feminist. 

Feminism and fake-feminism are completely different beliefs.  Just because fake-feminism exists doesn’t mean that feminism shouldn’t. 

A former Bollywood actress, Pooja bedi also started the ‘Men too’ movement inspired by the ‘Me Too’ movement, to also bring to light that men too can be victims and that they can be falsely accused by women. They can be subjected to unjust treatment based on the fact that they are men, which is the epitome of hypocrisy.

Feminism should preach equality for both sexes but somehow because of the wrong practice of it, it is starting to feel like the roles have been reversed instead. As a result women are conceived to be superior to men now and only their voices ‘need’ to be heard, and whatever they say is true irrespective of how wrong they are.