Winter Rant

With all the discussions and largely one-sided debate about the (semi-)recent video by Vogue India that spoke about choice and empowerment, there seems to be an important point that people are overlooking, and perhaps a great lesson for the feminist movement in India (and probably even the world).

The video that i am referring to, talked about the some of the choices that women in India have, and no one can take those choices from them (especially men, it seems). And that is all well and good. I for one, agree with that point of view, and support the video in that particular message.

But, the choices that the video talks about, just scratch the surface of the problem that women in India struggle with on a daily basis. Moreover, the video comes across as combative, and in some cases combative towards men. And that is a large reason for the blow-back the video received over the last week.

However, people seem to be glossing over the small matter of how the video and it’s message is not entirely wrong. Yes, there was the issue of grammar and style of language, but you really cannot dispute the message of the video. And to those who say that this video encourages infidelity — no, it does not. Let us not pretend that the number/rate of women cheating on their partners, after the release of this video, will increase with a statistical significance over what it was before.

Right and Wrong are choices. And, for us as a society to vilify the recognition of such choices, shows immaturity at best. And that is the point that people are missing — this video is not wrong in highlighting such choices; to say that it is, amounts to defying logic.

However, people are upset with this video, there is no denying that either. So, let’s understand that, and see if we can learn a thing or two about why people are angry and how that knowledge can be applied to the overall cause of women empowerment and gender equality.

Clearly, this video poked the (metaphorical) eye of the Indian society — which goes to my earlier point of how this video comes off as combative, especially against men. And that’s a problem.

If you think that you can ridicule and belittle a society into treating you as a first class citizen, when that society is heavily biased against you to begin with, then either you are naive or you are (perhaps unknowingly) your own worst enemy — and i do not know which is worse.

I am not preaching the way of peace and calm discussion, here. No way! The oppression of women in every walk of life in India, has gone on long enough. You need firm voices, fierce debates and concrete on-ground action in this movement to uplift women. But you need firm voices, not loud, unrelenting ones. You need fierce debates, with a willingness to listen to the other side while always being grounded in fact and logic, not in whim. You need profound substantive thought and actions, not shallow marketing campaigns.

Let us not make the mistake of thinking that we need to fight fire with fire. History has shown us time and again that every civil rights victory came when the oppressed played by the rules and took (and stayed on) the moral high ground, no matter what the oppressors did.

Lincoln was able to abolish slavery by tactfully passing the 13th amendment of the US constitution through the US Congress, but alas, through a technicality. It was an important step, make no mistake; but it led to a long era of segregation. That 13th Amendment of the US Constitution did not make a good enough argument to the oppressors of that time as to why discrimination on the basis of skin colour is plain wrong — it never took the high moral ground in how it was passed. It took yet another revolution to make that argument and explain in stark terms that racism on the basis of skin-colour is not right — that finally led to the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The march to Selma never conceded the moral high ground, no matter the atrocities. Dr. King was firm but never deviated from substance.

Similarly, there is a reason why Gandhi became catalyst of change that the British could not ignore, while being able to ignore Bose and Singh. And you can call it politics if you want to. But, these fights and arguments against institutional oppression are often are political to begin with or quickly become so. There is a reason why you cannot end America’s war on drugs while simultaneously being the first African-American president of that country. It might seem unfair, and it is! But, the fight and argument was always against that which is not fair!

This argument for gender equality has to be won on merits, without giving anyone the chance to refute those arguments, especially refutations that are frivolous in nature. The only way to do that, is to stick to the substance of the matter, and to not be frivolous.