Do not judge this to
be another sexist article. Read on! (It’s just one page right? give it a chance)
This is a term a lot of people ( mostly women) use way too
loosely without understanding what they actually mean, This is an article to
shed light on what it actually signifies so you do not want to end up with faux empowerment , we want the real deal
!
So let’s establish that I’m not all knowing but I was under
the impression that empowering someone meant giving them enough power to fend
and fight for oneself, making them capable of that meant empowerment , at least
to me, isn’t it ? But after reading/listening/watching/getting bored a lot of
female activists (sexists, rather) I stand corrected. Apparently empowerment
according to them is anything but “empowerment”, In the broader sense I know
the circumstances we live in are very dire and unsafe I am not taking about
that , I am talking about this being the most misinterpreted word , let me give an
example to elaborate
A couple go out grocery shopping, the husband is carrying all
the bags, nobody panics, but if the wife is carrying all the bags, everyone
loses their minds! They start judging no empowerment and all, why should the
wife carry all the bags etc. This is outright sexist, people who do not respect
or understand gender equality are the first ones who cry out empowerment. This
needs to change and now!
Most women do not complain at all while being pampered away
to royalty by parents , boyfriend , chivalrous friends etc, these are the same
ones who when denied the right to go out late or a different reason,purely due to safety reasons,talk about empowerment. The privileged ones keep
crying wolf so much that eats up all the media space but let’s face it, and
these are not the ones who need help. Sorry to break the bubble, but daddy
giving you lesser permissions and pocket money compared to your brother is not
crushing your empowerment. Daddy pushing you to work harder , helping you make
better career choices , sending you far for a better education , taking you to
karate class-this is empowerment.
In the rural landscape, it’s a whole other story, This is
where real work needs to be done, we need to focus here, not just big talk,
actually do something to impact it, Because this is where daddy molests the girl,
kills the girl, sells the girl, gets her married young, aborts the girl child
or gets her married to someone who will end up doing the same to her. The
actual empowerment here is to educate the girl child, provide equal opportunities,
spread awareness make stricter laws about ill-treatment and regulate them also.
I can keep on yapping but just me and my tiny article is not going to change
the whole landscape anyway. But hey , If I will do something for real , I won’t
publish it first , will do it without posting a story on Facebook and a picture
on Instagram with an underprivileged child , when I can do it that is, Right
now my priority in life is to self-empower myself , exhausted the husband’s
empowerment resources for now :p
Agreed that we live in a dangerous era, and unfortunate
incidents occur everywhere, no amount of precaution can guarantee safety
anywhere now. All I ask is to understand the full impact of the word before
using it, do not faux empowerment.
It is second nature to us to leverage the fact of being us
from situations and people. I’m sure most women/girls are accustomed to acting
helpless to get more help/care than actually needed without pushing themselves
hard enough. I know I am making strong accusations but for someone speaking
from the inside I know this for a fact, I can make up stats, pivot tables and
vlookups to prove it but I’m not that extremely jobless also. So empowering
oneself means pushing yourself to get work done with minimal assistance, bring
up the next generation of girls to live by these.
Women need to liberate themselves from pushing their weight
around or ‘zoning’ people for perks or safety or standby. How can anyone ever
respect that? Empowerment means self-sustenance, brought up or powered to take decisions,
built to be strong, not invincible also but a lot less vulnerable to
environmental changes. Be strong, be
someone you can look upto, not someone you bitch about, We need more of the very
few that exist out there who fight the odds fair and square.
More power to such Women!
