Monday, March 09, 2009

The centre of the world

Today after pondering over a deeply serious matter for about 2 minutes, I came to the startling realization that almost all men seem to think that they are the centre of the world! By that I mean that each man thinks that he is the centre of the world, nay, the universe! And how did I reach this extraordinary conclusion, you ask me? Well, I'll tell ya.

In Bangalore, in protest of the recent attacks on women, a campaign took place this weekend to increase awareness and to engage people in a dialogue. See, now thats exactly the kind of thing that brings the misogynists out of the woodwork. Among all the patriarchy affirming, disgustingly sexist remarks that were made, one BMTC bus driver had this gem to offer, "Women who wear provocative clothes ought to be assaulted. If I saw a woman like that, I'd assault her". I flung the paper after I read this sentence and fumed for the next half an hour. My ire, not surprisingly, was at this pig's nauseating male entitlement which he believes gives him the right to assault any woman he judges as having dressed "provocatively".

But as I calmed down, I thought about the use of the word provocative(assuming it was translated from Kannada correctly) in this context. I've heard a lot of things of things described as provocative and quite often used to justify violence against women. It isn't just used with our clothes, but to judge everything we do. The use of the word is quite interesting. Lets break it down shall we? First of all, it is being implied that the woman in question is provoking someone, in this case, by wearing certain clothes. Secondly, and most importantly, she is provoking all men in her near vicinity (or even morons who sit in judgment of her later) by wearing certain clothes. So what is actually being said is that the woman in choosing to wear what she is wearing is actually deliberately choosing to provoke strange men whom she has never met and is hardly interested in! This reasoning neatly transfers the responsibility of controlling the reactions of all men a woman comes in contact with on to the woman herself! This is the exact same logic used to make women wear veils in certain Muslim countries. Here in Karnataka (as of now!) only western clothes are provocative. In certain countries, unless a woman is completely covered, she is deemed to be provocative! It is not a difference in kind, but a difference in merely the degree. And all of this is neatly wrapped up in what is termed "culture" which is supposed to trump all logic and reason!

Now, I think I can speak for most womenfolk when I say that when I wear jeans or skirts, the first and foremost thing on my mind is comfort. If its cold, I like to wear jeans. If its hot, I like to wear loose flowing clothes like skirts. Salwars probably fall somewhere in between. And of course, the all important, frequency of washing clothes. If everything is in the wash basket, jeans come in very handy! If some guy I'd never met came and told me that I was wearing a skirt to provoke him, I'd laugh in his face! In fact the concept is so ludicrous, I am surprised that it has become so mainstream and universally accepted!

Hence, I've concluded that most men live in their own sad, pathetic little worlds. A world where women exist because they do. A world where the sole purpose of a woman's action is to elicit a response from them. You know, it's very unpleasant trying to be in a man's head and doing this analysis. So, I am going to get out.

I just find it very unfortunate that we as a society seem to be encouraging men to be such pathetic losers by reaffirming their twisted world views and making life a lot more difficult for women. Well, thats why its called a patriarchy.