In western fairy tales, the woman the princess is a helpless little wimp who gets into trouble, a Strong brave prince or Knight in Shining armour comes and saves her. They get married and live happily ever after! This portrays women as weak and men as strong, This makes who ever hears it feel like a woman needs a man in her life to save her. Sexist! fine!
In India we have an exactly opposite story - Savitri.
Her husband ( Satyavaan - but seriously Satyavaan who? ) was cursed to die young, in-spite of that Savitri married him. Then as expected, he died on the designated day, but Savitri was so powerful she chased Yama the God death himself and got her husband back from the dead! The western Prince just fought dragons, this Lady fought the ultimate villain death!
But Savitri is the epitome of Sexism, How Ironic is that!? Most feminists' blood boils at the mention of her name :-) Isnt that funny? No Really! Savitri is sexist not a feminist as you would expect.
West has this type of sexism where woman is weak and man is strong and so he carries the womans bags, this has at least some kind of advantage.
India has a type of sexism where woman is not weak she is just lowly! ha ha! So she carries her husbands bag! There is absolutely no silver lining to this sexism.
So Savitri was just doing her duty, she is not a Hero for rescuing her husband. She is symbol of this kind of sexism which tells all women that its their ultimate duty to look after their husbands and nothing else and she shows the lengths to which a wife should go to achieve this.
Can the Prince story be interpreted in the same way? It shows the lengths to which a man should go to please his beloved?? but it isnt is it?
It seems like its not the story that is important, Its how it is told. You can take any story and squeeze out any moral out of it. A woman is strong narrative can be used to oppress a woman or a woman is weak narrative can be used to oppress a woman. In fact not just women, men are as easily manipulated by clever people by being glorified, thats a story for another day. Today may be we should think of how to make Savitri into feminist icon, a Hero and not a door mat ;-)
In India we have an exactly opposite story - Savitri.
Her husband ( Satyavaan - but seriously Satyavaan who? ) was cursed to die young, in-spite of that Savitri married him. Then as expected, he died on the designated day, but Savitri was so powerful she chased Yama the God death himself and got her husband back from the dead! The western Prince just fought dragons, this Lady fought the ultimate villain death!
But Savitri is the epitome of Sexism, How Ironic is that!? Most feminists' blood boils at the mention of her name :-) Isnt that funny? No Really! Savitri is sexist not a feminist as you would expect.
West has this type of sexism where woman is weak and man is strong and so he carries the womans bags, this has at least some kind of advantage.
India has a type of sexism where woman is not weak she is just lowly! ha ha! So she carries her husbands bag! There is absolutely no silver lining to this sexism.
So Savitri was just doing her duty, she is not a Hero for rescuing her husband. She is symbol of this kind of sexism which tells all women that its their ultimate duty to look after their husbands and nothing else and she shows the lengths to which a wife should go to achieve this.
Can the Prince story be interpreted in the same way? It shows the lengths to which a man should go to please his beloved?? but it isnt is it?
It seems like its not the story that is important, Its how it is told. You can take any story and squeeze out any moral out of it. A woman is strong narrative can be used to oppress a woman or a woman is weak narrative can be used to oppress a woman. In fact not just women, men are as easily manipulated by clever people by being glorified, thats a story for another day. Today may be we should think of how to make Savitri into feminist icon, a Hero and not a door mat ;-)
No comments:
Post a Comment