Subtle misogyny

The recent fiasco over Phantom, the film starring Saif Ali Khan, makes one thing crystal clear about our society. No, not our obvious patriotism that was the talk of the town, but instead the misogynistic culture that we live in. A culture so embedded in our society that we, over and over again, fail to spot it. The unfortunate reality is that many people are ignorant about such issues, as I am certain that many, due to no fault of their own, don’t even know what ‘misogyny’ means.

For starters, misogyny is the dislike of, contempt for, or ingrained prejudice against women. Many would outright deny the existence of such a thing and think of themselves as the handful of those who don’t behave in this manner. However, the truth is that misogyny exists in subtle ways and is so pervasive that we fail to identify it with our bare eyes.

For instance, if a woman gives us directions to our destination, we normally stop and ask a man for the directions again ‘just to be sure’. Or perhaps, if we hear a woman talk to us about current affairs, we make sure to double check the facts, either by asking men or searching it online ourselves, again ‘just to be sure’.

This is merely because we do not have the capacity, or have it in us, to trust a woman. It’s as simple as when a man writes a song about his lost love, it becomes an overnight sensation and many critics term it as a profound piece of art, but when a woman does the same, she is just known as the girl trying to get over her break-up.

The reality is that the current status quo wasn’t established just by accident or coincidence. The anti-woman sentiments so prevalent in our society are constructed and propped up every day, collectively, and things will continue to remain so until we stop being naive and understand the issue at hand.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 22^nd,   2015.