No thanks to Elon Musk, in all the time wasted on checking my Twitter (or whatever the tech bros are calling it now) feed, there is not a peep from the people I choose to follow even if I make it a belaboured point to click on ‘Following’ not ‘For You’. Instead, I am bombarded with state/corporate/pharma-sponsored trolls and bots who are out to scam me, sell me something I don’t need, or simply ruin my day. However, the most insidious posts and videos on my timeline are about badly behaved and dangerous women.
Overzealous keepers of our nation’s culture and traditions, usually guilty of groping women and children, when not trashing the streets, getting drunk and roughing up ‘beef eaters’ and lovers, have made it their life’s mission to chronicle the misdeeds of random viragos. These depict harridanism, harpyism and harlotry in harrowing detail. For those who have lent their dictionary and thesaurus to Shashi Tharoor and haven’t gotten it back, allow me to clarify…
The unchaste chronicles capture women doing awful things like bashing up their mother-in-law, accusing innocent Uber driver of attempted rape to deny him his fare, cheating on husband, marrying man for his money and murdering him after with illicit lover’s help. Added to these crimes are other ‘offenses’ deemed by poltroons to be of the same magnitude—women partying hard in glam outfits, going to work while baby cries, and worst of all, ordering on Zomato instead of slaving over a wooden stove and lovingly preparing a feast fit for an entire kingdom. In badly worded tweets, wokesters and feminists are blamed for this state of affairs.
Somebody wise said that explanations are pointless because they are not needed for those who get it and are wasted on those who don’t or won’t. Even so, every once in a while it is necessary to state the obvious. Feminism doesn’t condone unconscionable behaviour, irrespective of gender. It is not right to ignore basic decency and hurt others, rip them off, and engage in any kind of criminal or antisocial activity. Feminists fight for equal rights for all and draw attention to the fact that in a majority of crimes involving violence, women are the victims.
Feminist pleas fall on deaf ears. Which is why some women make the unfeminist choice to be the predator rather than the prey. Many women are forced to marry unsuitable men against their wishes, made to slave over stoves and buried under domestic chores to prevent them from chasing their dreams. Too many are silenced and killed outright for questioning injustice, or for no reason at all. They are shown repeatedly that they can be objectified, used and discarded for the perverse pleasure of men. That they are not allowed to grow old, get a tan or put on weight. That they are burdens who are too expensive or too cheap. That they are never enough. Evil like this begets evil. Under these circumstances, it is inevitable that some will choose villainy over victimhood and wield the hammer to avoid the fate of the nail.
This article was originally published in TNIE Magazine
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