Me, the Feminist!

Looking back, I am unable to trace my path. I did not realise the moment I became an aggressive feminist. Because it did not come rushing into me suddenly on one fine day. It grew up gradually inside me. When did I become one? Was it at times when my mother used to make compromises on her career, ambitions and health to fit exactly into the role of a mother or wife? Or was it at times when my insensitive father remained free and did not have any such pressures to fit into his roles? Or was it at those times when my neighbours around my place praised my father for our education, growth etc. while the truth was that my father had contributed nothing towards our (me and my sister) growth? Did I realise that my father was stealing all the credits that should have gone to my mother? Did my father really steal it or it was the previlige he was enjoying for being a man? Why wouldn't even the society atleast try to think that my mother's role also would have been an important factor for our growth? Why does it go unacknowledged even when she was the only person to work hard for the child's growth? Didn't my mother earn equally as my father? Then why does the society praise my father alone? Isn't that the height of injustice? Why should I have my father's initial before my name? why can't it be my mother's?What right does the society or law has to force me? Why should I be identified as my father's son always and why not my mother's?Why does even the application forms, be it for any purpose like opening a bank account or in the electoral office or in the college application form or any such government procedures, always ask for husband's or father's name? What an injustice is this? Why can't it ask for a wife's name? Is a woman merely a man's possession in all her lifetime? So do they mean to say that proprietorial rights are transferred from father to husband once a woman is married? Shouldn't the government be ashamed for it?So... then, I started thinking. I started thinking from the age of 8 or 9. I saw the gender discrimination in each and everything. Everywhere!In my childhood I was totally inspired and fascinated by Bharathiyar's "Puthumai Pen" song while all the other children around me were familiar with "Odi vilayadu paapa". I still can't remember where I picked up the song when we were not taught at the school! Did I, at that early stage, go in for a search to find something that defies general social norms?As I stepped into adoloscence I started taking the right shape and become more aggressive. I was teased among my friends for anything I argue against the general set up of the society because they found it odd for a man to speak on feminism. I remember once in my college, I delivered a speech on "Women as successful Enterpreneurs" and I made a statement criticising the general stereotypes that are being forced on women. And just As I ended, the whole class broke into heavy laughter and was applauding trying to make piss about me. "Oh God! what a pity!", I thought.My thought process was never disturbed by these awful creatures called men. Bloody blood sucking creatures! Are these men mentally crippled? I used to wonder what made them not to realise or not to think! But now I know the truth. It is not that they have a poor IQ. It is because they do not want to think. They do not want to let go of the privileges they have been enjoying in the society so far. They are threatened by the women's growth. And so to feel secure, these men oppress, harass, abuse and some pig headed men go in for moral policing too.I have a friend ( But I no more call him so!), my class mate who goes around campaigning to all my class mates who are girls about the right womanly behaviour. He advices them not to sit crosslegged in front of men and lectures on how submissive they should be. He says only this kind of a behaviour would bring them good life! And do you know what does a good life mean to him? Obviously it is nothing other than the bloody marriage! And he is not a villager who has come from the deep south of Tamil Nadu. He was born and brought up in Chennai Metropolis. He has had enough exposure that a normal human being needs to think. So, why does he refuse to accept? It is because this uncouthed creature doesn't want to think! Oh sick creatures!Sexism, discrimination and chauvinism! These are the key personality traits for Indian men no matter who they are or where they are! Oppression and oppression! Wherever you go! Everywhere around you! In colleges, in schools, in corporate world, in media, within the four walls of the so called homes,on the streets, in the buses, in the law, in justice... Shouldn't women live as individuals? Is it too much to ask for?