Stand Together

What kind of a disgusting world are we living in, and what sort of a despicable population we are that we are finding it alright to encourage the already deep-seated misogyny in the name of fun. For the uninitiated, “Aunty Aun Kya” shouting events and flash mobs are based on one of the crassest music videos featuring a primitive cave man with the narrowest and the most pervert mind-set ever – just like most Indian men. I am not linking the said music video to this article as I find it thoroughly revolting. In the video, this idiotic moron describes in full perversity the body of a middle-aged woman, her clothes, and how he plans to rape her in order to rock her world. I couldn’t get through most of the video as it sadly made me want to violently shake up the dimwit who created this video and the millions of idiots who have endorsed it. Yes, India is endorsing this junk by participating in shouting events and flash mobs. Here is why I think it is wrong. The video: Object...

Men have always found ambitious women intimidating, which is why in most cases they cannot accept us. My interaction with most men leaves a sour taste as I don’t allow them to takeover or lead a conversation. This is the daily reality of women in leadership and management positions around the world, but when we are your client, we do expect you to shut-up and listen, as you would listen to a client that is male. In less than a month I have had two hilarious encounters with male representatives of companies that my organisation is looking at as potential partners, vendors or suppliers. Before I tell you a couple of silly stories, allow me to give you a background on where I work. I am employed at one of South Africa’s biggest training companies , which is owned by a woman and has an all-woman staff. The reason they are no men in this company is because the aim is to help bridge the enormous pay gap between men and women and different races, and also to promote gender equalit...

I and my husband have created a family tradition out of movies. On each of our birthdays we get to choose a movie to watch in the cinema, and the other will just have to watch it irrespective of the genre. On my birthday a few days ago, I chose the movie ‘The Viceroy’s House’ , directed by Gurinder Chadda.  My husband is a South African man of Indian ethnicity. The history of his country is not the history of my country and he is not really aware of India’s colonial past. He does not yet know how magnificent India was before the British invaded us, but he is aware of the legacy of colonialism. Movies such as ‘Lagaan’ showed him that the British were racist, unjust and evil, but ‘The Viceroy’s House’ told him a different story. Within the first 10 minutes of the movie my husband said his blood was boiling in anger at the way Indians were being treated in their own country. His reaction to the movie was an eye opener for me and I felt a cold stab because I was only watchi...

In a world where opinions stated or statements uttered become subjects of heavy criticism, it is important to understand what feminism truly is. We live in an ugly world, in which instead of encouraging and building up each other, we have become more prone to trolling and criticising. According to Merriam-Webster, feminism is “the theory of the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes”. Google describes feminism as “the advocacy of women's rights on the ground of the equality of the sexes”. The keywords we need to pay attention to are ‘equality of the sexes’. Yes, for all those who don’t know what feminism actually means - it is simply a movement working towards ensuring the equality of all genders. I have noticed that many women are confused by the term feminism. Most believe if you’re a feminist, you want women to be greater than men. This is not true. Real feminists only want equality for all genders, whether female, male, or transgender. We see all gender...