Gender Inequality – Ashwini's Perceptions

A-Z of Feminism (Blogging Challenge 2018 #Blogchatter), Cricket, Feminism, Sports

Batting for Equal Pay and Equal Say in Women’s Cricket

April 4, 2018 by ashwini 10 Comments

Cricket and Hindi Films (some call it Bollywood) are the nation’s biggest loves. Both of them also very clearly reflect the sexism in our society. I have already spoken about the under-representation of women in our films in my previous post. In the case of cricket, or rather Women’s Cricket, I would like to divide my arguments to focus on 2 issues – the wide discrepancies in ‘Pay’ as in her in earning capabilities in comparison to men in the same industry and ‘Say’ as in the decision-making powers of women.

The Pay Issue

India woke up to the Indian Women’s Cricket Team’s abilities only last year, thanks to a brilliant performance in the ICC Women’s World Cup where they ended up as runners-up. Even though their matches have only recently started to be televised, some of the women cricketers have around a decade worth of experience. And yet when BCCI announced the retainer fees for the contracted women and men cricketers (ironically a day before International Women’s Day) everyone was shocked to see that the lowest paid male cricketer is set to earn double the highest paid female one. That’s a wide chasm. Now one could argue that there are various factors that you could attribute this chasm to:

The ‘star’ value of the women players and their power to fill stadiums
The stage of evolution of the women’s cricket as compared to the men’s
The endorsement value a woman cricketer can demand

These are practical factors and are acceptable.

The Say Issue

Mithali Raj in an interview in January this year said that women’s cricket should not be compared to men’s cricket. A case of frustration? In the article there are many statements that make you wonder how much say she and her team really have in the decision-making process! ‘It’s up to the Board’ seems to be something that she has accepted – when it came to training, TV telecast or the need for a women’s league similar to the IPL. She also lamented on the way people perceived women’s cricket.

Virat Kohli however has ‘Say’ and ‘Pay’ covered

It is no secret that Kolhi has the final say – or the ‘veto power’, not only when it comes to getting the best team members but also the coach that he wants a.k.a Ravi Shastri over Anil Kumble. He also had a very important role to play in the pay negotiations. He along with ex-skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni and coach Ravi Shastri ensured with the recent pay hike for the male cricketers that their earnings match those of their English and Australian counterparts.

It is clear that the Women’s Cricket does not have Equal Say or Pay

Sure, men’s cricket has an established and loyal fan base and that the women’s cricket will take a while to get there. Even the women cricketers must agree with it to some level. But I still believe that we need to get to Equal Say and Equal Pay eventually. After all, other than a slightly smaller size ball and slightly shorter boundaries, women cricket is not played any differently than men’s cricket on the field.

Can somebody from the Men’s team please stand up in support for the Women’s Cricket?

Rahul Dravid or ‘The Wall’ as he was popularly known as, made his country proud with his work ethic and determination. He continues to inspire even after his retirement. Dravid recently took a very important stand fuelling the arguments in favour of ‘Equal Work for Equal Pay’. When the U-19 team that he coached won the World Cup for a record 4th time, the BCCI announced prize money for the team, coach and support staff as follows:

Rahul Dravid immediately protested this. He said that that it embarrassed him to get so much focus and attention when the entire team of coaching support staff put in an equal amount of effort as he did. BCCI had to reverse its decision and award all the members of the coaching staff including the coach Rs. 25 lakhs. Dravid took a prize money cut (I am aware it is not a pay cut) of Rs. 25 lakhs.

We need someone prominent (ideally the men’s cricket captain…after all he is married to a feminist!) to acknowledge the pay gap in women’s cricket as compared to the men’s and suggest ways to diminish the gap over time… say 20 or 30 years.

Equal Pay has to be a goal for Women’s Cricket and if the right steps are taken, it can be done. I have given it some thought.

Here are some ways I think that Women’s Cricket will go from strength to strength:

1) The BCCI needs to invest in women’s cricket today to get returns tomorrow. They need to provide all the infrastructure and support that the men’s cricket gets. It can’t happen overnight but it must in time.

2) The cricket tours must be organized in similar fashion to the Tennis Tournaments, where the women’s and men’s cricketers tour together and compete with their respective opponents from the same country. It will reduce the logistics and sponsorship issues while giving women’s cricket a lot more support. It will also make it double the fun for a spectator. He/she could watch 2 T20 matches – one of the men’s and the other of the women’s team on the same day with lunch in between. What a perfect Sunday!

3) One-off matches consisting of mixed teams comprising of 6 men and 5 women cricketers should be considered. The men and women will learn a lot while playing with one another. If playing in the IPL has taught us anything, then it is that close associations with the best in the world improves your game by leaps and folds.

4) Televise as many matches of women’s cricket as possible and target women viewers. Most men who are true cricket lovers should naturally become loyal fans of women cricket. Unless they are misogynists, the women’s cricket team is just another Indian team to root for! The new women fans will also follow men’s cricket in time. The increase in demand for tickets would lead to increase in prices.

5) BCCI also needs to commit to reducing the pay gap over a period of time-10/20/30 years. They could also lay down criteria based on performance that could claim increase in pay.

Once the foundation is taken care of and women are assured of good pay in the sport if they perform, we will soon have envious bench strength of talented youngsters. With training and guidance, their potential will translate to good match performances and victories. The Women’s ODI team is already doing very well. These changes will help create a team that performs well consistently and across all the formats of the game including T20 where the team is currently struggling for good form.

I cannot end this post without…

Some pointers to the commentators and journalists who add to the gender inequality in Cricket:

1) Get the terminologies right:

No more calling men’s cricket ‘cricket’ and adding the gender prefix only in case of women. Call it men’s cricket from now on. Then calling it women’s cricket is justified. Also let all the players wielding the bat be known as ‘batters’. The gender neutral name will ensure that commentators’ lives become easier. No more stumbling over ‘batsman’ or ‘batswoman’. Oh and along the way, it would be great if someone could acknowledge the sexism in the terms ‘Third Man’ and ‘Maiden Over’ and come up with gender-neutral terms for these as well!

2) Invest time in understanding the nuances of women’s cricket:

This goes particularly to the commentators. Just as you spent time with the international team while also keeping a close eye on the younger crop, please do the same for women’s cricket as well. References to men’s cricket should be avoided as far as possible. Of course, for this to happen, again more women’s matches need to be televised.

3) Giving Women’s Cricket the respect that it deserves:

Journalists also need to stay away from asking the women cricketers to comment on how well Virat and his team are playing. I think such questions just demean the efforts of the women’s team.

Finally let us give a rest to the most important question: Indian men’s or women’s cricket team—which is better?. Through a scientific method such as ‘Elo Ratings’, it has been established that the Indian women’s cricket team with lesser pay and say as compared to the more established men’s cricket was still the better cricket team as on July 2017!

P.S. I love my cricket. I have watched and enjoyed the sport since I have been a kid. I enjoy all formats of the game including even box cricket. The views in this post are based solely on what I watch on TV and what I read about it. I have never played the game and I did not reach out to any women cricketer prior to writing this.

Reading time: 7 min

A-Z of Feminism (Blogging Challenge 2018 #Blogchatter), Featured, Feminism

Conversations about Gender Representation in Films and the Bechdel Test

April 3, 2018 by ashwini 23 Comments

I need to start this post with an apology to the third gender. This post shall focus on how women are under-represented in Hindi Films in India. The category of people that associate neither with the male or the female genders are also largely ignored by mainstream cinema even though they represent a decent section of the population. Unfortunately when stories have tracks for the third gender or the LGBTQ community in their stories, they are usually incorporated for comic relief. Please go through the earlier hyperlinks to read about studies that analyse the under-representation of the third gender in our films.

Now there are every few households that don’t have any women in them. Our villages, towns and cities are filled with women. And yet our films don’t seem to reflect this too well.

Cinema in India enjoys a lot of love and has a very wide audience. This gives a lot of power to the filmmakers. But do they put their power to good use? Not really.

Last year, IBM and two New Delhi-based institutions released a public study of over 4,000 Hindi films to understand the extent of gender bias in the industry.

Here is a summary of the study findings (all graphs and images are snapshots from the report that you can read here):

1) Cast mentions in the Movie Plot: Right from 1970 to 2017, the data indicates that the male character has double the number of mentions as compared to a female character.

Female mentions are present in Pink and Male mentions in Blue

2) Cast Appearance in a Movie Plot: The adjectives most associated with males are: rich and wealthy while the verbs associated with them are kills and shoots. On the other hand, women characters are often described as beautiful and attractive while the verbs associated with them are marries and loves.

Adjectives for characters

3) Cast Introductions in a Movie Plot: Male characters are usually introduced by referencing their professions e.g. famous singer, an honest police officer, a successful scientist etc. while a woman character is invariably introduced in relation to a male character

4) Occupation as a Stereotype: Women characters tend to have lower level occupations e.g. teacher or student while the male character tends to have higher level occupations such as lawyer or doctor.

Occupations for men

Occupations for Women

5) Cast Dialogues and Gender Gap in Movie Scripts: On studying the ratio of male to female dialogues in 13 scripts, it was found that Raman Raghav was the least biased while Kaminey and Aligarh showed the most bias.

Female dialogues are presented on X-axis and Male dialogues on Y-axis

6) Movie Poster and Plot mentions: Publicizing a movie is biased towards a female on advertising material like posters, and they end up having an even smaller or inconsequential role in the movie. 50% of movie posters had female representation but 80% of the movies had more male mentions than female. Notably, 3 movies – GangaaJal 2 , Platform 3 , Raees 4 had almost 100+ male mentions in the plot but no female mentions whereas in all 3 posters females were prominently present on posters.

Source- Pixabay

7) Movie Trailers: The screen time for women characters in movie trailers has consistently been half that of men for over a decade!

8) Female Centricity: The good news is that the female centric movies and female mentions in our movies are on a rise.

9) Singers and gender distribution in soundtracks: Since the female actors have a lesser role to play, so do their voices. Right from 2010 to 2017, the female singers have sung consistently less songs as compared to their male counterparts. The duration of the song sung by the female singer has not been considered here but it is more likely to be lopsided. This fact was also corroborated in a recent interview with the top female singers in the country.

Sexism not covered by the study above

Other than the garden variety of sexism that persists worldwide,women are further objectified through ‘Item Numbers’ in our Hindi Films. The term itself is offensive. Kangana Ranaut depicts the widely prevalent sexism in a viral video in collaboration with AIB, a popular Indian comedy sketch group. You can read the on-point lyrics of this parody item number– ‘The Bollywood Diva Song’ here.

And of course we know this – the top male ‘superstars’ of our country are all 50 years old and prefer to pair with actresses half their age! Most of our 300 crore films fail the ‘Jane Test’ for this reason (read about the Test later in the post)! Fortunately the trend of female actors who vanish from the screen on getting married is changing today.

The report concludes by suggesting that the primary steps one can take to narrow the gap of gender bias in Hindi Films is by:

a) Removing Occupation Hierarchy –Moving away from stereotypical occupations

b) Removing Gender Bias from plots – Ask important questions like, ‘If one interchanges

all males and females, is the plot/story still possible or plausible?’

This brings us to the second part of my post…

THE RELEVANCE OF THE BECHDEL TEST

First let us understand…

What is the Bechdel test?

The Bechdel Test is a measure of gender inequality, particularly in films but it is also being used as a tool for Feminism in plays and short stories as well.

It was created by American cartoonist, Alison Bechdel in her 1985 comic, “Dykes to Watch Out For”. It is also known as the Bechdel-Wallace test.

To pass the test, the story has to have at least two unnamed or named female characters who talk to each other about something other than a man.

Women’s Web, a forum for women requires contributors to submit short stories that pass the Bechdel Test for its Monthly Muse contest. The measure is used widely across the globe.

But is the Bechdel Test the ideal measure of gender bias in stories? I don’t think so.

Many people across the world including the creator of the test, Alison Bechdel acknowledge that the test isn’t perfect and may not always work. It definitely highlights the problem but its simplicity can be its undoing. Let us break the test down to highlight its failings:

a) Two women must speak to one another

In a recently released short film produced by Anurag Kashyap and Shlok Sharma, the viewer takes the same emotional journey as the characters in the film take after a very traumatic event. There were no dialogues and yet the film makes you empathize with a woman’s anguish.

b) The two women must talk to each other about something other than a man.

There are various scenarios where two women could talk about a man and yet have a feminist flavour. One important scenario could be conversations about abuse. A woman pushing her friend/ colleague/ daughter to stand up for her rights cannot take place without mentioning the man! Such empowering conversations will fail the Bechdel test!

The film Gravity does not pass the Bechdel Test even though it revolves around a woman astronaut who survives in space owing to her intelligence and grit. Read here on how even though most of the highest grossing films in Hollywood passed the Bechdel Test, the issue of gender bias remains largely unsolved.

If not the Bechdel Test, then what?

The Bechdel Test may still be the most popular measure but there are other tests that could be used to supplement it to get a clearer picture of gender biasedness in films.

1) The JaneTest:

Script-reader Ross Putman highlighted the sexism that prevails in Hollywood by sharing the character descriptions for the female lead from actual scripts in a feed on Twitter using the handle @femscriptintros. It was found that most of the descriptions only focussed on how the character looked. He replaced all the names with ‘Jane’ which is why it is called the Jane Test. According to Ross 3 questions must be asked by writers before crafting the female lead:

a. Does the introduction focus on the external attributes of the character?

b. Is he a twenty- or thirty something?

c. Is she dating someone decades older than her?

If your answer is ‘Yes’ to all the questions above, then the script fails the Jane Test.

2) Samantha Ellis, a feminist playwright in Hollywood, devised the ‘Sphinx Test’ that also involved asking a series of questions for playwrights to consider while creating a female character:

a Is there a woman centre stage?

b. Is she active rather than reactive?

c. Is she compelling and complex?

3) Read here to know 12 tests that checks gender bias across 4 main aspects of movie-making:

a. Behind the Camera

b. Intersectional

c. Protagonists

d. Supporting Cast

These tests emerged when FiveThirtyEight (a website that focuses on opinion poll analysis, politics, economics, and sports blogging) asked 13 people in the entertainment industry to come up with personal standards for representation in cinema.

Gender Inequality behind the scenes

The study on Hindi Films doesn’t touch upon the lack of women film makers (directors, producers, editors, camerawomen etc.) in the industry. According to this article in 2016, there were only around 60 women working behind the scenes in big ticket movies. Here is a quote from a cinematographer who happens to be a woman explaining the reason–

”The opportunities are fewer because you are judged already right at the beginning on the basis of gender. I don’t understand what a ‘physical film’ means. I don’t understand why a man can shoot this and I can’t.”

This was in response to a comment by a reviewer who was surprised that the cinematographer was a woman. Also do read Shit People Say To Women Directors and other Women in Film.

No money for Feminism

When a movie like ‘Masaan’ is made, portraying a strong and independent girl from the small-town of Benares, I am sure it inspires women everywhere. Of course we know the love that ‘Queen’ or even the ‘Tanu weds Manu’ films have received from the audience. But I don’t think the makers set out to make ‘feminist’ films. They wrote stories that they themselves believed in. Richa Chaddha praises the makers of Masaan in a recent interview: ‘Neeraj Ghaywan and Varun Grover are possibly the most progressive (and) intelligent men I know who are so non-judgemental, understanding and humane…’ Neeraj Ghaywan followed Masaan with an amazing short film ‘Juice’ starring Shefali Shah that focussed on the sexism and patriarchy that still pervades our Indian homes. There are several other short films that aim to highlight the sexism that exists in India.

You may argue that the above films and short films are all made on relatively low budgets. Without the financial risks that a big-budget movie faces, these inspirational stories can afford to lend themselves to feminist ideals. True. But there is a glimmer of hope. I think that the reason why you saw the improving trends in female centric movies recently in the study earlier is because data suggests that half of the movie-goers are women today! This was not the case in the 80’s or 90’s where the movies catered primarily to men. As the women audience members watch more women centric films they will drive the demand upwards for such films. The consistent success of these films will make film-makers less wary of creating such films.

At the end of the day, no matter how many tests, questions and studies we subject our movies to, the fact is that writers want to share stories about the world around them. And unfortunately as long as sexism prevails in India, you can’t blame cinema or stories for mirroring the reality. Let’s try and make our women feel more as equals. Then our stories will also reflect it.

Reading time: 11 min

Feminism

Open Letter to Men on Women’s Day

March 8, 2018 by ashwini No Comments

An edited version of this post has appeared as a featured post on the popular Women’s Forum – Women’s Web

Hi to all the men out there,

This letter is an invite to the International Women’s Day Celebrations.

On this day, we would like you, our brave comrades, to join the Feminism movement.

Please don’t shake your head, be scared, be angry and most importantly, please don’t stop reading. It’s just one letter – slightly long – but I promise one that you will find is not offensive to men and may even seem logical at the end.

We know the word ‘Feminism’ comes with a lot of negative baggage

Feminism is not about men-hating or about special privileges for women. The word as it has been coined may imply it…but that’s a misnomer. Feminism only talks about equality to all genders. In this very well-articulated TEDx talk, ‘Why we should all be Feminists’ Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, a Feminist from Lagos, Nigeria speaks of how people think that ‘Feminists are unhappy women who are unhappy because they cannot find husbands’. At the end of the talk she has her own great definition – ‘A feminist is a man or a woman, who says -Yes, there is a problem with gender as it is today and we must fix it. We must do better.’

No! Women still don’t feel equal to men and hence the fight needs to continue

I know that you don’t think that there is a problem anymore and that women are equal. Women can work now and vote also! In fact you may even think that with women having separate coaches in a local train or seats in a bus or creation of an entire department in companies known as HR, (Kidding! See I am a Happy Feminist who makes jokes!) they have more rights and privileges than men! But they don’t! Listen to stand-up comedian Karunesh Talwar on why some privileges are important only for women’s safety.

We need you to acknowledge that several kinds of disparity still exist!

Surely you see that there are never the same number of women as men in most companies and industries. Much much fewer in fact!

Surely you are aware of the female infanticide numbers!

Surely it also angers you to see the newspapers filled with rape stories!

Surely you understand why we are asking for equal pay for equal work!

Surely you understand why it is wrong to ignore women in meetings and resort to mansplaining! (In case you are not familiar with the term mansplaining, it’s ok…neither did Ranbir Kapoor! )

Surely you know the fact that PMS is a real issue and that our emotions do not make us crazy!

Surely you acknowledge that women, given the right education and opportunities and support, can go where no one has ever gone!

Surely you trust the women in your life to take the right decisions and hence don’t need your permission for anything!

Could it be that you agreed to everything I said but don’t see the smaller issues?

Chimamanda speaks of 2 incidents in her TEDx talk about how men who accompanied her did not even realize how a waiter and a parking assistant ignored her completely and would only acknowledge her male friend. Has this happened to you when you took your wife out somewhere? Please ask her…it might have and maybe you did not realize it.

When stand-up comedian Aditi Mittal acknowledged sexism the “boy gang” culture in the Indian Comedy scene during a discussion with Anupama Chopra, it touched a raw nerve. I have seen it happen. Groups of men hanging out together at smoke breaks or booze parties with usually no women around. The bond they share is so strong that they always have each other’s back. She mentioned how the boy gang does not extend the same support and motivation to a new female stand-up comic as they would to a male stand-up comic. She had to take a step back and disassociate herself from the situation completely to survive. Isn’t that sad?

You know the funny part though…the remaining 5 men in the discussion (Yes! Even in the discussion to discuss gender disparity there was gender disparity!) thought it was unfortunate why we don’t have more women comedians but that’s how it goes! Of course they are funny and they should be more of them…but there’s no real reason why they aren’t!

It’s ok. It’s human to not notice issues unless they affect you directly.

But here’s why it’s getting scary. Even in relatively nascent areas such as comedy also, there aren’t enough women!

Could it be that you realise there are real issues but don’t know how to help?

There is one simple way to help. ASK & LISTEN. We want you to ask the women closest to you, if they face these issues. Just ask them when you see them sad or angry – “Hi, is something bothering you? Can I do something to help?” I promise you it will win you some brownie points with them– ALWAYS! Women are conditioned not speak out of turn, laugh loud, or take the less travelled path. They need their partners, men to support them on issues that they feel strongly about. Also, please remember women will not lie about the way they feel. And they don’t mean it as a personal attack. They just want help!

Similarly even in organizations, women should have the liberty to ask for rights they think they deserve. Sure with maternity leaves, and crèches and sexual harassment committees, a lot of large strides have been taken. But what about the discussions on equal pay?

Becoming a Feminist, having gender conversations and acknowledging your privileges will be difficult and uncomfortable but it is important

Speaking in favour of Crèches or Maternity Leave may be slightly easier since it does not directly affect men but the discussion of equal pay does. It is an uncomfortable discussion to have. But it should happen in every industry!

When you see a panel of discussion with lesser women on it than men, say so!

When you see a woman trying to say something and another man interrupts her, give her a chance to speak!

Speaking on behalf of women, supporting their cause or sharing your observations does not make you effeminate or gay.

Chimamanda in her TEDx talk says that the best Feminist she knows is her brother who is a kind, good looking and lovely man who is very masculine!

The Chicken and Egg Story

Women can’t do everything! There I said it! We also can’t change the world, without your help. We need you to help us to turn the tide. And there are stakes in this for you too.

If women have been following rigid gender norms, so do men.

Don’t you agree that if you had seen your father help your mother cook in kitchen and seen other male relatives also share the household responsibilities, you would do the same?

If someone taught men that they are not entitled to have sex at will with your wife, there would be lesser marital rapes and rapes in general, don’t you think?

In a TED talk, activist Kamla Bhasin highlights the issue of “emotional castration” of men and how patriarchy dehumanises men leading to violence against women. “Men need to understand that till women are free, they won’t be free either, that they need to take the leadership in the fight against patriarchy to save their own humanity,” Bhasin said.

#FeministHero: A Big Shout Out to Men for doing their bit

We have campaigns, organizations and individuals who raise their voice against the gender disparity and big big round of applause for them. I have listed only a very few examples here. There are sure to be many more. Please feel free to share your own #FeministHero stories.

We have #HeForShe , a solidarity campaign for the advancement of women initiated by United Nations Women. Its goal is to achieve equality by encouraging men and boys as agents of change and take action against negative inequalities faced by women and girls.

Closer home we have Forum to Engage Men(FEM), working on issues of gender equality and masculinity in more than 10 states, Men’s Action for Equity (MAE) in Jharkhand, MAVA (Men Against Violence and Abuse) and Samyak in Maharashtra and MASVAW (Men’s Action for Stopping Violence Against Women) in Uttar Pradesh, and women’s organisations like Jagori, for community-level gender training programmes for men.

Did you know that there have been many Pad Women – Maya Vishwakarma, Anju Bisht, Niveda R and Gowtham S and a group of women from Goa’s Mulgao village – who have worked on low cost sanitary pads and created awareness about Menstrual Hygiene. But it took Arunachalam Muruganantham and the movie based on his story starring Akshay Kumar to bring the topic to people’s drawing rooms. Sure Twinkle Khanna has had a pivotal role in writing the story and believing in it to produce the movie, but we know that having urban men talk about menstrual hygiene has helped the urban women’s cause. A lot of course still needs to be done for changing rigid rural customs and thought-process but a step in the right direction has been taken. It’s nice to have some support.

When Aayushi Jagad and Sumedh Natu,made a video on how most AIB Sketches does not follow the Bechdel Test and how they reduced the women to table lamps in their videos (Not that the Bechdel Test is a great test of Feminism in the first place), AIB acknowledged the issue. But AIB’s supporters abused and intimidated Aayushi and not Sumedh…in the middle of the road! Sumedh then in a very touching post on the incident said, “While I sit at home in comfort, she’s out there right now, beyond shocked at what just happened.” Kudos Sumedh for supporting your friend and colleague in her time of distress!

I wanted to find Karunesh Talwar and hug him when I came across this video. Aditi Mittal spoke of a horrible incident of sexism at a discussion with fellow comedians Daniel Fernandes and Karunesh. She however refrained from taking his name. Karunesh did. Even though obviously Daniel knew who Aditi was speaking about, he didn’t! What Karunesh did is extraordinary and we need more men like him! Oh and he also acknowledged the “boys club” and the privileges of men! Men out there…speak out, please! And here’s the thing… other men will also support you! So many men wrote glowing testimonials for Karunesh in the comments section of the video! A word in favour of Daniel though – he publicly accepted that he was wrong to say what he did in an extremely sexist video on “Feminazis” and that he had written it out of ignorance and he wouldn’t do that joke any more. Thanks for acknowledging it dude!

We don’t want ‘Convenient feminism”. We need you to really care

“I still think there’s power in calling oneself a feminist,” the journalist David Perry tweeted, but with a caveat: “but not as a ‘trust me I’m an ally’ to get entry/visibility elsewhere.” Instead, he proposed, call yourself a feminist “in male dominated spaces,” where it takes some courage, where it might make a difference.

The infamous Harvey Weinstein had funded a gender studies professorship, campaigned for Hilary Clinton, the first female presidential nominee and produced a documentary about sexual assault. If the Pandora’s box about his abuse of power to sexually harass women had not come to the furore, most would have believed that he was a Feminist! !!

SNG Comedy also has created sketches, and song parodies supporting Feminism. Several brands come up with interesting ads on Women’s Day. But we need these efforts to continue beyond one day in a year.

So we want men to not only talk the talk but also walk the walk. If you are convinced about the cause, it’s not difficult at all!

All of you who think that if you propagate feminism you may not get a “good wife”, please watch this hilarious video of stand-up comedian Nidhi Goyal who says that if a “good wife” means someone who cooks, irons, washes, sweeps the floor, takes care of the husband, makes him comfortable, then she also wants a wife and not a husband!!

If you are wondering why most of my article has references to comedians, well it’s because I am a Happy Feminist! Also because, comedy is the best way to get people to talk about difficult subjects.

I would like to end my letter with a small request to each and every kind, good looking, lovely and masculine #FeministHero out there. Please take this oath with me (repeating Chimamanda’s words)- “Yes, there is a problem with gender as it is today and we must fix it. We must do better.” Please join us in our journey to a better world.

Lots of Love,

Happy Feminist

Reading time: 11 min

Batting for Equal Pay and Equal Say in Women’s Cricket

Conversations about Gender Representation in Films and the Bechdel Test

THE RELEVANCE OF THE BECHDEL TEST

Open Letter to Men on Women’s Day

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