Shayan Zafar

B.A. LLB. (First Semester) (Regular)

Political Science-1
Roll No.:47

FEMINISM-UNDERSTANDING ITS CORE

Is feminism about being a play card and exploiting others to get some
advantage???
In the recent case of model Meghna Sharma who went and stripped off her
clothes in front of Mumbai cops to show she was raped and abused by the
Mumbai cops and tried to take advantage as she is a female.
Is feminism about “WOMEN”??
In this second decade of 21st century, we all know that feminism is not about
“women” but about recognising how modern discourses of gender produce
human being as exclusively as “men” and “women”. In other words feminism
requires us to recognise that “women” is neither a stable nor a homogeneous
category. But not are caste, race or class stable or homogeneous categories.
Feminism is heterogenous and internally differentiated. We need to pay
attention to the challenges to the stability of given identities-including those of
“individual” and “woman”. These challenges constitute the radically
subversive moments that are like to be most productive for feminism in 21 st
century.
One movement shook the entire world in 2017 known as “#me too”. Women
felt unsafe in colleges, work places, homes and even at their schools. On
October 5,2017 the NEW YORK TIMES published an article detailing sexual
harassment allegation against famous Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein.
Three days later his company terminated him. In this context actor Alyssa
Milaano took to twitter encouraging all women who were sexually harassed or
assaulted to change their status to “#ME TOO” in order to give people a sense
of magnitude of the problem. The women who came forward about sexual
harassment allegation were referred as the “silence breaker” and the TIME
MAGAZINE named these “silence breaker” as “THE PERSON OF THE
YEAR 2017”. On September 27th2018 former actress of Bollywood Tanushree
Dutta accused Nana Patekar a renowned Bollywood actor of sexual
harassment, which was the catalyst of the “Me Too” movement in India. The
accusation by Dutta stirred a row of accusation from many women in
industries including media and politics. Tanushree Dutta’s accusation was
supported by many big personalities of Bollywood like Farhan Akhtar who
also launched a social campaign named Men Against Rape and Discrimination
(MARD), Priyanka Chopra, Twinkle Khanna and many more. In October,2018
the Minister of state for External Affairs, M J Akbar was accused of sexual
harassment by several female colleagues. On October 21st 2018, former music

1. Times of India
2. Nivedita Menon, “Is Feminism About Woman? – A Critical View on Intersectionality from
India”, March7,2014
3. Twitter Inc
 director Anu Malik was suspended from the jury panel of the Indian Idol 2018
musical show as he was
facing multiple allegation of sexual harassment made through the “#Me Too”
Movement in India.1
The #me too movement has empowered many women who were the victims of
unjust behaviour to come forward, although the movement has its own
inequities by persecuting and often impacting the livelihood of the accused
without due process, or any process whatsoever. The court of public opinion
quickly makes judgement, but the employers should not do the same. Due
process is important for all parties, as an employer has an obligation to all of
its employees both in maintaining a safe workspace for all and in terms of not
summarily dismissing someone simply because an allegation is made.

“It is not women’s inferiority that has determined their historical

insignificance: it is their historical insignificance that has doomed them to
inferiority.”
---- Simon de Beauvoir

As a political term feminism was a twentieth century invention and has been a
familiar part of everyday language since the 1960s. It was first used in 19 th
century as a medical term to describe either the feminization of men or the
masculinization of women. In modern usage, feminism is invariably linked to
the women’s movement and the attempt to advance the social role of women.
Feminist ideologies is defined by two basic relief that women are
disadvantaged because of their sex and this disadvantage can and should be
overthrown. In viewing gender division as political, feminist challenged a
mobilization of bias that has traditionally operated within political thought by
which generation of male thinkers, unwilling to examine the privileges and
power their sex had enjoyed, had succeeded in keeping the role of women of
the political agenda.

“Ain’t I a woman??”
---- Sojourner Truth

By the mid-19th century women movement had acquired a central focus to

campaign for female suffrage, the right to vote which drew inspiration from
progressive extension of franchise to men. This period was referred as “the
first phase of feminism” and characterized by the demand that women should
enjoy the same legal and political right as men. Female suffrage was the
principal goal because it was believed if women could vote, all other forms of
sexual discrimination would quickly disappear. First Wave ended with the
achievement of female suffrage, introduced first in New Zealand in 1893. The
19th amendment of US Constitution granted the vote to American Women in
1920.

1. Andrew Heywood, Political Ideologies- An Introduction (Palgrave McMillan, New York, 4th
Edition)
 “Feminism is the radical idea that women are people”
----Marie Shear

Women’s movement was regenerated with the emergence of feminism’s

second wave movement in 1960s. It acknowledged the achievement of
political and legal rights had not solved the women’s question. Indeed,
feminist ideas and arguments became increasingly radical and at times
revolutionary. The goal of second wave feminism was not only merely
political emancipation but women’s liberation, reflected in the ideas of
growing Women’s Liberation Movement.
Sojourner Truth’s one major question regarding third wave feminism
movement is “What is a woman”??
Third wave feminism is intellectually informed by post modernism and post-
structuralism, both of which challenges feminism to re-evaluate societal
concepts including the notion of gender itself. They de-emphasize attacking
women's second-class status directly in favour of attacking systems of religion,
government, education, media, and even the family, all of which they believe
are partly responsible for reinforcing women's second-class status. It
challenges not only the status quo of women's roles within these systems, but
the systems themselves, making it largely overlap with and feed into the social
justice movement.
Feminism is an important phenomenon of society. Though it has been misused
sometimes by the women for taking advantage of being a woman. But in a
long run feminism movement proved to be a boon for society as it helped
women to come out of their adversity from their homes, work places, schools,
markets and many more. Many campaigns were launched such as MARD #me
too and many big personalities came in support of those women and tried to
help them in whatever way they can. Different class of society especially the
middle-class society can solely transform the condition of women in world as
a whole. More women coming out of their closet and speaking up and sharing
would lead to the emancipation of the class and would lead to an evolved and
civic society where women are as much an important cog as men.