The society of India is predominantly a patriarchal society where manhood is extolled and womanhood is given a secondary status, often a life of servitude under the shadow or sympathy of a man. At least this was the picture before women could acquire economic independence and educate themselves.
While things have improved to quite some extent in the urban areas, in rural India however, the patriarchal domination and exploitation of women in the hands of males have not changed much. Here, women still suffer at the hands of a testosterone driven society, where men make all the rules and women comply.
Indian society: Are we a testosterone driven construct?
Indian society has always given undue importance to men. Society discriminates between man and woman and has ingrained an ugly gender bias that has cast its roots deep into the society. Gender bias no doubt is a construct of our society where men are born as well as bred to think of themselves as a superior gender; a superior sex, while woman the inferior one.
It is true that our society has a ‘testosterone driven construct’ where men by virtue of their male hormone, testosterone, think of themselves to be all powerful and assume that they can do anything with the other sex; i.e. ‘the woman’ who is biologically weaker.
A society full of superstitions:
Our society in fact has lots of taboos, dated concepts and superstitions. Sometimes these superstitions surround Birds, sometimes animals, sometimes inanimate objects and sometimes women. For instance the cry of a raven or mewing of a cat is considered an ill omen. Also if a cat crosses the road people stop and wait for someone else to cross before they can resume their journey again because that too is considered as something portending ill-luck. Often you have heard of people worshipping stones, boulders, Banyan trees and may have even seen it.
Indians believe that some spiritual power seats on these sources. Women too are sometimes held unlucky, especially widows, those who are childless or infertile, those who have not been married off or the ones whose husbands have deserted them. Society tries to defame them by spreading rumours, especially in rural India, are almost ostracized.
However, have you ever noticed that strangely enough, our society has never associated men with any sort of ‘ill-luck’? Isn’t that enough of a sign that we are in fact a Testosterone Driven society where men can do no wrong, while a woman can easily be blamed for things that don’t always go right?
Women associated with all bad things
Since Indian society is a patriarchal construct, it implies that men wield all the power. So they always see themselves in a favourable light while give woman a sub-human abominable status. They never hesitate to associate women with all things bad.
It’s a shame that even in this 21st century when a girl child is born to couples in rural India, the family is not happy because they wanted a son. The in-laws blame the woman for giving birth to a girl child and call her names and treat her badly. And even though science tells us that it’s not the woman but the man who is responsible for the sex of the child, these people will still find no fault with the man but blame only the woman.
Why does our society forget that it is a woman who showed them the light of the world; it is she who forms the origin of life?
Some men have changed but not all
With changing times, some men have changed their attitude towards women. They have been able to transcend the gender bias and are honestly trying to participate in the attempts made to minimize gender gaps. But this is the picture in some parts of urban India only. The older generation, plus the population in rural India, still cling onto the absurd traditions and beliefs.
Isn’t it time that our testosterone driven society made a few changes, and gives women the respect they deserve?
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