Social Media, Feminism and Men-What it means in India?
Feminism is a buzzword that has been around in the digital media over the past few years. Social media has played a huge role in contributing the growth and spread of feminism in various countries, by giving women from all strata of the society, a platform to speak about issues, that fellow women face. One such country happens to be India. Influencers play a huge role in creating a safe haven to promote diversity and equality. Many among the likes of Rega Jha, Kusha Kapila, Mitali Bhasin, Sukhnidh Kaur and many more have pioneered feminism on the digital media market.
What you’d have noticed among these names is that they’re all women. Good for them, as they represent a community of people who identify as women(let’s not talk about trans rights, that a whole other ball game). But where are the men? Now, a common misconception of feminism is that it is for the women to overrule men, and therefore men should have no part in it. Feminism stands for equality of the sexes. No domination-submission crap. A section of men fear women, who are termed as ‘feminazis’, that they’re trying to make the society matriarchal. What they fail to understand, is that they themselves are doing the same with roles reversed for centuries now. Patriarchy is so ingrained in our system, that even women succumb to the ideologies of it. Girls, how many times have your mothers’ told you not to go out after 10 because it’s ‘not safe’?
I once came across this post on social media, where a girl judges another girl for wearing something that’s considered by the society as “asking for it”. But, she immediately realises her mistake and applauds the other girl for making bold choices. Now, this is something we’ve all experienced in our life some way or the other. The first thought that comes to your mind, is the ideology that’s been ingrained into you, by the society, through mainstream media and otherwise. The second thought is what you as an individual recognise out of respect for other’s choices, and sometimes, just common sense and humanity.
Let’s talk about the role of men in all this. Certain male influencers on the Internet do talk about issues that plague women in the country. But, their numbers are meagre. We, as men are the ones who can break the patriarchy from the inside. We are the ones who can help make other men understand the importance of feminism, and why women should be allowed to make their own choices at any point in life.
Social media is always a double-edged sword. Although, it is very active in spreading false beauty standards among women, being the main cause for eating disorders, what it also does is helps spread information about issues that matter, and ropes in people who are usually inaccessible. Almost 30% of our population now uses the Internet and inevitable are on social media. Imagine the effect if feminism as a movement decides to spread on social media voluntarily. We’ve seen a glimpse of it in the ‘Me Too’ movement, but what do I say? We’ll leave India to answer it.
