The Utopian Concept of Gender Equity

There is a thin line of disparity between self-respect and arrogance that most people err in their lifetimes and cannot distinguish when the time arrives. I wonder how Indian society finds it appalling for women to be assertive and bold in their stance as they try to voice out their opinions on what they believe in. While I respect our culture of virtue, values and morality, it is baffling how patriarchal our society is, as it still perceives women through the fragile glass lens of being demure, nurturing, soft and family-oriented while she is working and expects her to be silent in her stance when men of the house are talking. 

I came across this scene from Shefali Shah’s movie Juice, which depicts the traditional and orthodox mindsets of male privilege and female oppression that have been passed down over the centuries. The scene where Shefali Shah sits in the same room as men, and how triggered they are by her mere presence, completely gives justice to the narrow perspectives of many households in Indian society which still promote the idea of women as docile and nurturing beings who are not meant to sit in the same room where the men of the house are embellishing on their thrones of toxic masculinity engraved through years of incorrect societal conditioning.

Though change is happening, it is going to take years to achieve the standards of holistic equity between the genders, until then it is safe to say that we are trying our best to bring the utopian land of fairness and equity into our long-standing reality 

-Hridya Sharma