Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Wo-men

I was reading this book called “The Second Sex” by great feminist Simone de Beauvoir and I was surprised to know that learned people like Aristotle had said that : "The female is a female by virtue of a certain lack of qualities; we should regard the female nature as afflicted with a natural defectiveness."

I wonder how these people managed to get respect and acceptance in the society by large. Aristotle seems like such a big misogyny. Yuk !!

Men with like views should be made to live in isolation or for that matter in an island of only men – and then maybe they would know what is it about being a woman – that its not merely about a uterus – there is a larger picture.

On second thoughts, if I really sit to dramatize this entire thing, i would like to say a couple of things, did anyone notice that even in English, 'Wo' had been prefixed with 'man' to get 'Woman' :).. Sounds Clichéd and duh!! Hmm.. Not that any of these learned and wise men are saying some great things :D. And the other equally duh thing i want to say is (actually i read this somewhere): "First Nature thought of creating its biggest wonder, then he created man. Later he looked at it again and said he could do a better job, and then he created Woman" :) .. What pleasure it gives me <|:D.

Before men make comments like this on women, I guess are unaware of the essence a woman holds within herself. More surprising is the fact that there are so many women who take this thoughtless and absurd judgment about them.



Read this article below, made me damn angry::

The Inferior Sex
In ancient Greece, Aristotle expounded on the "natural inferiority" of women in all spheres of activity. "The female is a female by virtue of a certain lack of qualities," he wrote. "We should regard female nature as afflicted with a natural defectiveness."[16]

The Renaissance in England -- an era when women reigned as queens -- was characterized by a spate of diatribes which employed the concept of female inferiority as a foundation for castigating the "unnatural" and "monstrous" phenomenon of the female ruler. Political reformer John Knox's The First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous Regiment of Women (1558) was a "declaration of the imperfections of women, of their natural weakness and inordinate appetites." A sampling of its many degrading references include: "the inferior member," "weak, frail, impatient, feeble, and foolish," "in her greatest perfection woman was created to be subject to man" and "all woman is commanded to serve, to be in humility and subjection."[17]

During the same period in English history, the acceptance of female inadequacy served as a basis for the subordination of women in the marital relationship. From 1562 onwards, the British Crown directed that The Homily on Marriage be read in church. This statement portrayed the woman as "a weak creature" who was "prone to all weak affectations and dispositions of mind, more than men be."[18] In 1619, a guide to proper conduct in marriage offered the following advice to wives: "Set this down with thyself: mine husband is my superior, my Better; he hath authority and rule over me; nature hath given it to him . . . . God hath given it to him."[19]

The notorious Marquis de Sade, who in the second half of the eighteenth century terrorized and brutalized scores of female victims to satisfy his insatiable appetite for violent and degrading sex, resorted to the most demeaning terminology when referring to women. He called woman "a puny creature, always inferior to man, infinitely less attractive than he, less ingenious, less wise, constructed in a disgusting manner entirely opposite to what is capable of pleasing a man, to what is able to delight him."[20] This imagery dominated his perceptions and constituted a major factor in motivating his abominable behavior.

Various authors, thinkers, and philosophers are found in the forefront of endowing the vocabulary of female inadequacy with considerable respectability. Joseph Addison, a prominent English author during the latter 1600s and early 1700s, thought women "incapable of logic and not amenable to reason."[21] The phrases "no sense of justice," "defective in the powers of reasoning and deliberation," "that undersized, narrow-shouldered, broad-hipped, and short-legged race" and "the unaesthetic sex" comprise just some of the many derogatory characterizations of women in German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer's "Essay on Women" (1851).[22] These views led him to the conclusion that "they [women] form the sexus sequior -- the second sex, inferior in every respect to the first" and are "by nature meant to obey."[23]

A milestone in the relentless war of words against women came in the work of another German philosopher, Otto Weininger. His Sex and Character (1906) represents one of the most extreme defamations of female character ever published: On imagination -- "women are devoid of imagination." On memory -- "A being whose memory is very slight, and who can recall only in the most imperfect fashion." On morality -- "with regard to women we can talk only of the non-moral, of the complete absence of a moral sense." On genius -- "the female must be described as absolutely without the quality of genius . . . . A female genius is a contradiction in terms." On thinking--"a woman is without logic . . . The absolute female, then, is devoid not only of the logical rules, but of the functions of making concepts and judgments which depend on them."[24]

Weininger's assaults on female capability knew no boundaries: "However degraded a man may be, he is immeasurably above the most superior woman." As the result of a "long analysis," Weininger asserted: "There is no exception to the complete absence in women of any true, inalienable relation to worth."[25]

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Listening??

What do I have to do to get your attenton ?

Take out an ad in the newspaper??

Is'nt it Ironic

The darkest hour of the night is just before the dawn breaks, but then sometimes the sun just forgets to rise.

Just when you think you are safe, you get hurt in places where you least expect to.

Is funny but its true that we hardly know the road on which we travel everyday.

It’s ironic that when you acquire that one thing that you craved for since a long time, you don’t need it anymore.

It happens so often that you never find what you are looking for in the most probable places.

Though unfortunate, but the person you madly love doesn’t love you back.

You just almost always fall short by just an inch.

In spite of knowing that the most precious of relations can not be defined, we spoil the beauty of it by trying to name it.

Is it not incorrect to expect life to be simple when we ourselves can’t help but let our heads behave the way it does – completely absurdly complex..

“A No Smoking sign, on your cigarette break.” : )

Monday, April 9, 2007

Do I need a title everytime I blog :(

Heard its snowing in New York. I love the snow. Dec 2005 I saw snow in the hills of Himalayas, but never witnessed a snow fall. Would like to stay in a cold place for some time. :) ..

I used to always wonder why people in India are so excited about US and living/visiting abroad. I never was and still am not. Because of papa, we have had many opportunities to go vacationing abroad, but I was never interested, and so I never used to go. The money / lifestyle / picturesque but very plastic beauty – all that never excited me. My carefree nature may be a subtle but strong, consequence of the economic security I have because of my family. But I have great respect for people who have struggled in their lives. I have struggled too – not on economic grounds but on life – and slowly I have grown to be a iconoclast, a person who stands up against wrong doing completely fearlessly – my parents call me a dare devil :) .. Of course for they are worried about me. I don’t like to live a regular illogical life. I don’t like to do things just because everyone does things that way – and I definitely don’t like doing things because otherwise ‘someone’ in the family/society will talk non-sense about you.

I live my life in my terms as much as possible. I want to experiment. See life, feel alive. I spend a lot of time with the less fortunate – I look at the miseries they go thru and feel bad being what I am – suddenly all the comforts I have look meager and small and unworthy. I feel content if I can make a person smile. And if the person really needs the smile, I am happier. I believe everyone needs a smile at all times. A couple of days back I went to an old age home, I loved it. I loved each and every angel there. Beauty at its best. They were miserable (that’s why they are there), but they still took time to smile and talk to people like us with open hearts. Apart from that I love reading good books, I love to write, I love to appreciate beauty, and I love to contemplate and interact with learned people.

Those are a couple of things which I like. But alas, that can not fend for my bread :) -- so I am doing what every regular person does – work.

About me finding what I came to look for in Mumbai, Well, I have not, seemed to have landed up with more questions. :P

Now I want to go to the US and see what people are running after. I want to experience that now. Maybe I come up with some answers, or land up with more questions, :). But that’s also life, and life is unpredictable :) .. It knows no logic, that’s why it is life.

Someone recently asked me if i found what I came looking for in Mumbai, and this is what I had to say.