Why Feminism Confuses Me By Srestha Banerjee

Why Feminism Confuses Me

By Srestha Banerjee

30 May, 2014
Countercurrents.org

Hello is there anybody in there....

Two voices cry out from the world around us, the world which we belong to so much, yet largely remain disconnected. The voices now belong to another world though- they are dead.

Well I was expecting some shamed profile pictures, some out raged comments and demands for candle light vigils in the social media the last two days. But alas the social media did not live up to my expectations. The gangrape of two dalit girls in rural Uttar Pradesh possibly failed to stoke the heightened anger and the deep sympathy of the urban mass. The National Commission of Women has taken suo motu cognizance of the matter and a committee will be sent to investigate the case; an outcry probably awaits such investigation.

The victims who failed to gain enough attention from being “woman” however did attract the political skirmish. The society which has discounted the womanhood have not missed out on the blaming and shaming politics. A political debate not for change though, but for one more discussion on the caste issue, another injustice which after years of political correctness remains successfully entrenched.

Feminism as practiced in the popular sphere confuses me. Though as a woman I would certainly like to claim myself to be the same, the underlying contradictions have left me uncomfortable. From "personal" choices to choices of protests, the symbols and manifestations have made me question a selection bias. The feminist discourse is probably one of the strongest political dialogues that we as a society should be engaged in to claim civil rights. But dialogues are incomplete if they lack plural inclusion and comprehensive thought. And without such assimilation, we might see the light of justice for one Damini, while thousand more continues to be sacrificed.

Srestha Banerjee is a researcher at the Centre for Science and Environment, New Delhi working with the Policy Research & Community Support Team