Having had the social media scene in my virtual vicinity erupt with endless articles, voices and opinions about rape culture, women’s safety, the polemic against the recent documentary and the government, has confused & worried me in the last few days a lot more than it does usually. A chronic helplessness has begun to take over upon realising just how incredibly far away we are from being civilised members of a society that actually understand ‘freedom’.
Almost 57 years ago, this country achieved independence. I sometimes wonder what that really means outside of the ritualistic patriotism and lip-service-love for the country that becomes available on two days of the year. Have we released ourselves from the desire to oppress others? have we even tried to define what it means to be free of ideas that used the narrative of inequality to oppress us? The end of imperialism as we knew it also meant that to some extent even those in power had realized what was wrong with the ideology of supremacism or the ideology of inequality. (or so we hope)
Almost 57 years ago, this country achieved independence. I sometimes wonder what that really means outside of the ritualistic patriotism and lip-service-love for the country that becomes available on two days of the year. Have we released ourselves from the desire to oppress others? have we even tried to define what it means to be free of ideas that used the narrative of inequality to oppress us? The end of imperialism as we knew it also meant that to some extent even those in power had realized what was wrong with the ideology of supremacism or the ideology of inequality. (or so we hope)
However, we do not yet understand equality - neither in terms of gender nor in terms of wealth. Lets start with gender identity. Your identity is seemingly codified by your sex organs at birth, this method is not correct, but until the collective consciousness doesn’t accept it as erroneous, we will be doomed to continue living in a world of stereotypes far far away from the truth. This is dangerous because often stereotypes become the code on which culture is built. A culture built on exaggerated generalizations and offensive over-simplifications is not a rich culture, in fact it is a culture that is weak at its seams, that will most definitely find its downfall after its short sighted goals have been fulfilled.
But even so, we continue with the false ideas of what it means to be a certain gender. Choosing to override individuality from the fear of missing a particular gender boat. Of course, Biology has pre defined certain physical roles mostly in terms of reproduction and physicality. But what of the realm of identity - how many of our beliefs and inclinations are the result of social conditioning?
One might argue that one shouldn’t go against nature, but haven’t we already done that with modern medicine extending life spans, indulgent lifestyles encroaching upon and destroying what is in fact the sacred cycle of nature, unearthing dangerous and poisonous substances to make life on this planet more ‘successful’? Then why are we so uncomfortable about changing the status quo when it comes to gender?
One might argue that one shouldn’t go against nature, but haven’t we already done that with modern medicine extending life spans, indulgent lifestyles encroaching upon and destroying what is in fact the sacred cycle of nature, unearthing dangerous and poisonous substances to make life on this planet more ‘successful’? Then why are we so uncomfortable about changing the status quo when it comes to gender?
When equality precedes gender based identification then, who we are as individuals becomes more worthy an idea than being the embodiment of masculinity or femininity. That is when we will learn to engage with each other in a truly cognizant or productive manner. It will be a time when body language that is unconstrained will not be categorized, habits formed, would be the result of the individuals thought process and not by the the influences of product selling ads that are very happy to maintain the gender divide because its easier to sell cars that way; Some people will be from mars, some from venus, some from jupiter and so on.. Perhaps all bodies will be equally sexualised or maybe we’d have had enough of unnatural sexualisation anyway. Maybe the connection between pre ordained genetic make up resulting in a certain kind of beauty/strength/intelligence will be more visible and we’d be less likely to care about the results of competitions that are basically just judging what your genetic code has to offer (...even though there is unmistakably a lot of hard work that goes into these as well)
But its important to remember that this is not a dream about utopia, because people will still be patronising, there will still be crime, bigotry, fanaticism, greed & pestilence. It’s more like a silver lining. Humans unencumbered by gender stylings and stereotypes, thinking up new insults because calling someone a ‘girl’ or ‘gay’ would just not be insulting anymore.
Having just one day of the year dedicated to women centric marketing strategies is just not enough. Not that an ‘International Men’s Day’ would help balancing things out. But maybe if we can all learn to figure out who we are outside the lines of gender, then maybe just maybe we can one day having marketing strategies that capitalise on our universal insecurities and not just the gender based ones, to sell us stuff that falsely cajole us into the delusional stereotypes of success and happiness.
Oh wait. That part is already happening!
