When the matriarchal system was ending, the process of endangering the personal and social position and importance of women also started. Woman's identity as an individual ended and her commodification began. Just as the price of a thing is determined by its use, external appearance, its durability, a woman starts to be evaluated. A woman who gives birth to more children is known as a polygamous mother. Demand for women skilled in housework and agriculture increased as slaves and maids. So beautiful women came to the center of political and social struggle. Overall, their place as individuals was threatened and men adopted the attitude of looking at them as objects. These things led to women being the property of men.
A woman became the yardstick for evaluating a man's prestige, his political and social dominance, his personal masculinity. He who had more women, became stronger. It was from them that if you wanted to kill your enemy, you would abduct his women or rape them. A man who cannot protect his women has become an impotent man. The Ramayana is a good example of this mentality. Ravana abducts Sita to avenge Shurpankhe's insult. To protect the honor of one woman, he risked the honor of another woman. Rama also fought with Ravana for Sita or to prove his masculinity. Even in Mahabharata, Kaurava-Pandava played dyut and Draupadi had to suffer his punishment. Saying that Ramayana happened because of Sita and Mahabharata because of Draupadi, people put the responsibility of both these wars on them.
This mentality is deeply rooted in the minds of not only men but also women today. With changing times, its appearance has changed so much. Let us consider some of them here. A woman is still considered a subordinate property of a man. She is impressed that the family's reputation depends on her. If anything happens to her, this shame will go to waste. The main thing is that the woman has to bear all the bad consequences. Men usually get away with it. Well, no one is prepared to know how much the woman is responsible for what happens when she gets a bad name. Not only the men, but also the other women in the house. 'A girl is a stranger. He is another mentality '. From a very young age, she is constantly impressed that you are a stranger. Her birth is the beginning of debt. The child's father has a constant fever in the head that is born from this mentality. Then why spend money on such girls, seeing that she will be a slob?
This mentality is so low that she has to put on a good show at the wedding, give dowry to the couple and do anything to spend the goods. Behind it is the feeling that a woman is just an object. The appearance of a woman is another sign of this mentality. The woman in the house should not come in front of strangers, she should wear a veil, she should not talk too much, she should always remain humble in front of her husband, she should satisfy his physical hunger when he says, these things are not to let outsiders see a valuable thing in our house, which is the stubbornness of people or the desire for something that belongs to us. It is the same as the type of consumption when desired. Or the display of that wealth. It is from them that no matter what the boy looks like, the boy should be fair, beautiful, not wearing glasses, young, brilliant, and calm.
Which has not decreased even today. There, the personality of the girl is not important, her education is not important, her character is not important, what is important is her looks. If only Jodi had that income now. The ulterior motive here is that the thing called a wife should be beautiful and be able to be admired. However, men are never ready to impose the same rules on themselves. Behind it is the sense of ownership. Taking a woman for granted in every matter, taking all the decisions on her behalf, is also a form of ownership. Women Sarpanch is a notorious example. Presently, these types of making the lady of the house stand in the election without asking her wish, making her work by herself instead of letting her work after she is elected and mirroring are going on everywhere. If a woman tries to oppose him, she is opposed both from inside and outside the house. It expresses the expectation that a woman should behave like a woman. Being a woman means that she does not have an independent existence, she can live in the shadow of her man, at his will.
If this picture is to be changed, not only women but also men need to be taught empowerment lessons. In fact, men need it more. Treating men and women as individuals will be its foundation. A woman should decide that her body will not become a reason for anyone's disrespect and men should also accept it. It should also be accepted that a woman's body belongs to a woman, and she has the right to decide what to do with it. This does not mean that she is free to use her body as she pleases. Because no one usually does that, not even a woman, not even a man. And even if something like that happens, his responsibility as a person will also be on that woman. Not only making a woman aware of being independent, but also putting the responsibility of her actions on her is an important step towards seeing a woman as an individual.
Responsibility makes a person introspective, alert, sensitive. Due to the sense of responsibility, the latent powers of the body are awakened. It is from them that we get our true identity and the inspiration to create our own independent existence in society. The path to women's empowerment is through her personification. And men also have to participate in this process. It is not useful to say this only to women. Men also have a personal need for empowerment. It should only be the empowerment of the mind. Which will help to destroy the diseased, chronic, orthodox, unscientific, inhuman feelings and thoughts about women in their minds.
The present time is very useful to change this mindset. Having a foundation of friendship in the relationship between men and women will be beneficial for this. Friendship is smooth, free, non-competitive. In that, you don't think of each other as a man or a woman, but only as a friend. Unknowingly help each other to grow as human beings. Friendship has the power to eliminate gender discrimination. The question is, will we allow blood or marriage to supersede this relationship? If that happens, our journey will be in reverse again. After the marriage between two friends, if the relationship between husband and wife starts to be effective, it does not take time for problems to arise in the relationship. But even after maintaining this relationship, if we have the feeling that we are friends first and act accordingly, many questions will not arise in the beginning. If this is started in this generation, we can only hope that men and women will be recognized as individuals in the generations to come. We all need to try this.
