Assignment
Assignment
Activity 1
The patriarchal societal system has spread its clutches all across the varied spheres of human life. The female has always been conditioned by the institutional machinery of patriarchy to embrace passivity and “correct femininity”. Thus, the women folk of the society have been kept inside the constricted sphere of the home and the normative duties which have been attributed to the women have been homemaking and childrearing. From the very tender age, the female is stripped off her independence and ideal equal status and is made to pursue the unattainable goal of becoming the epitome of immanence and passivity. The male folk of the society have always treated the women as the ‘Other’ and have thus ominously denied them their status of humanity.
History bears testimony to innumerable acts of gender discrimination and stereotyping. In recent times, the social group has mustered the valor and sense of freedom to raise their voice of protest against the evil practices of patriarchy. From economic disparity, suffrage rights to property rights and many more, women have always been cornered by the society which has treated them as inferior.
Recently, a nineteen year old Tunisian girl, Amina, had posted two pictures of her own on a page of the social networking website, Facebook, where she posed topless. She had written “My body is my own” in Arabic over her naked body. This bizarre form of protest was in consolidation with the Femen movement that had hit the world society with its immense impetus.
At this, the conservatives have plunged to criticize the occurrence and Amina has also been threatened of being killed. What is alarming is that Amina has now been admitted in a mental asylum by her family, probably to avert a fundamental backlash that may cost her life. The Tunisian government has not viewed this act as pardonable and Alami Adel, who is the head of Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, has declared that she should be stoned to death.
Shifting focus to further east, in India, the most recent governmental policy for rape victims has been monitory compensation and employment for a close relative of the victim. The Justice Verma Report, after the heinous Delhi gang rape case, went on to categorize the criminality of the act and concluded that the criminal who is convicted for rape has be judged on the basis of the categories of torture and atrocity. Abuses, rapes and other form of crimes on women are on a all time high in the country and there seems to be no respite if the roots of patriarchy are not shaken.
All these highlight the disparity and attitude of the patriarchal society toward the female folk. The status quo puts to question the injustice and inequality which demean the honor of women.
It is quite insightful if one studies the semantics of the informal conversations among males and females in absence of the opposite gender. Such conversations are bound to bring out the inner feelings and beliefs of the respective sexes and give a comprehensive view of the sociological situation and the perspective of the sexes. It was for the purpose of this assignment that I embarked upon the mission to observe the social groups and try to analyze the conversations keeping in mind the rules of structuralism.
Facing the vehement opposition from the feminist organizations which are dedicatedly toiling to achieve equal rights for the women folk of the society, the male in formal situations refrain from showing much chauvinistic attitudes in the fear of being identified as an advocate of patriarchy. A close observation of the subtle transformations in attitudes and conversational content establishes this variance. It was found that the male groups repeatedly expressed their innate belief that they were superior to women and were found to criticize the women and finally revel at the derogatory attitude. In workplaces, people had problems with female superiors and were found to abuse such individuals and pass objectionable comments on them. The male folk exuded a sense of pride and superiority and could obviously not come to terms with being governed by a person of the opposite sex. Moreover, there were undertones which indicated that women folks were seen as commodities. This is truly a very insensitive trait among the males.
Among the females, however, there were many who reflected their condition of being not so confident about themselves. Some were found to be referring to their household and children back home during the break in their work schedule. Astonishingly, a few ladies indicated of being extremely disturbed by the chronology of sexual advances by the male counterparts. Also, some complained that they were not given enough respect by the male folks who worked with them. What concerned them was the stereotypical outlook of the male that they were not capable of taking the onus of equal work. Thus, their productivity and efficiency was put to question. However, the women mostly seemed to be triggered by their inner zeal to achieve economic equality and honor in the society and workplace.
The observations clearly point to the fact that the innate superior feeling of the male hinders the outlook of equality of the sexes. Moreover, the women are in a constant struggle to establish their identity. Several impediments come in their path of success ranging from the household responsibilities to male chauvinism and harassment. Thus, the world society stands at a critical stage where the paramount need is to tread in unison toward a progressive society where gender equality would prevail.
