I firmly believe that feminism does not need to be “palatable” for it to succeed. Just like all other social movements, it requires giving up our privileges, and disruption of our existing thought processes and institutions, and such change is always opposed by structures that benefit from status quo. To that effect, in the past, […]
Read more "Breaking down #NotAllMen’s favourite arguments"Every woman has a name. Some names are assigned to her at birth. The young middle-class woman who was studying to be a physiotherapist and was gang-raped on a moving bus in Delhi in 2012, was named Jyoti Singh at birth. Some names are bestowed upon her, supposedly as a mark of respect. The same […]
Read more "Every woman has a name"I was recently looking through some tweets and Facebook status updates trending #MothersDay and #FathersDay, and I’m sickened by the cultural constructions of mothers as self-sacrificing cows and of fathers as hard-working heroes. I am revolted by all the praise and emphasis on parental unselfishness disproportionately based on gender. While one individual portrayal of sacrificing […]
Read more "It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s Self-Sacrificing Mom!"The hardest decision I am faced with every day as a woman is which route to take while travelling alone at night. But what would you pick if your daily struggle was choosing between water to drink and water to wash your menstrual blood? What do we really know about women in our villages? I […]
Read more "India’s Other Daughters"I was 10 when while waiting for the school-bus outside school, a man walked up to me and showed me his exposed penis. I ran from him, climbed up a tree, and stayed there till the school-bus driver came looking for me. I was 12 when it became a routine for my school-bus driver to […]
Read more "Dead men can’t eve-tease"Since high school, I’ve been taught how to menstruate politely. And while some may think that it means we’re moving past the menstruation taboo since we’re finally talking about period, we need to take a step back and notice how the conversation is going. Pre-menstrual syndrome (PMS) is socially acceptable humour. Sanitary napkins are sold […]
Read more "From menstruation taboos to menstruation etiquette: How the 21st Century world distracts you from bleeding vaginas"
Radhika 