“Feminism is not about that moment of final triumph, but about the gradual transformation of the social field so decisively that old markers shift forever. . . It comes slowly, slowly, feminism does. But it just keeps on coming.”
Nivedita Menon quotes this in her book Seeing Like A Feminist. Someone who briefly taught in Lady Shri Ram College, an influential feminist like her, takes us out of the tapered world of feminism and introduces us to the fundamentals of intersectional feminism, beyond borders. From the disparate impacts of discrimination that have shown that we are far from achieving equality, Menon reflects upon the fact how intersectional feminism offers a focal point through which we can more readily comprehend each other and endeavor towards an all the more just future for ourselves. Seeing Like A Feminist isn't only about the difficulties encountered by woman's rights in India; It covers a wide scope of issues like the nude makeup psychology, Hindu Code Bills, the Pink Chaddi crusade that was intensely condemned by the media, 'sex check' tests for the Olympic Games, Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, the Women's Reservation Bill which was rarely executed, and the primitive hardness of the Indian working classes towards their “servants”.
"The fact is, no man can ever know whether a child is his. A woman knows a child is hers, but a man can never know whether it is his, not even with a DNA test. A DNA test can only tell you if the child is not yours, but if your DNA matches, it only indicates ‘a high statistical probability’ that it is your child. As they say, ‘Motherhood is a biological fact, fatherhood is a sociological fiction.’ It is this knowledge that creates permanent anxiety for patriarchy, an anxiety that requires women’s sexuality to be strictly policed.”
Through this, Menon explains how India is a clamor of personalities and an assorted variety of socio-social frameworks, and perpetually, in this uproar, the Indian woman's voice is lost. Discrimination against us, women in India is faltering: 33% of grown-up ladies stay ignorant, conjugal assault isn't illicit and is accepted to devastate the holiness of relationships, and sex particular premature birth and female child murder, however unlawful, are still generally rehearsed. As women in India keep on being exalted, they are not treated as people with nobility, thusly, developing into one's women's liberation, in India, is an agonizing cycle. Her book gives a comprehension of the women's privileges story in India and persuades the readers to figure out how to scrutinize the current social and accepted practices in India. The book is an incredibly splendid essential groundwork to the women's liberation of the Global South, while separating out issues on women's privileges inside India.
“Once we give up on the idea that only heterosexuality is normal and that all human bodies are clearly either male or female, more and more kinds of bodies and desires will come into view. Perhaps also, one body may, in one lifetime, move through many identities and desires. The use of, 'queer’ then, is a deliberate political move, which underscores the fluidity (potential and actual) of sexual identity and sexual desire. The term suggests that all kinds of sexual desire and identifications are possible, and all these have socio-cultural and historical co-ordinates.”
Seeing Like A Feminist additionally scrutinizes, the manners by which fluid sexual orientation is looked down upon, in the heteronormative world, and this is particularly significant on the grounds that while the legitimate framework has started perceiving non-parallel characters, the social request despite everything victimizes them gigantically. Nonetheless, feminism perceives that gender can be and is free to be fluid, and our bodies are political, and this is especially freeing. In spite of the law being accepting homosexuality today, a greater part of the Indian segment is unconscious and uneducated on its fundamental thoughts.
The utilization of the term ‘queer' presumably best reflects what a mind larger part of the Indian diaspora feels about people who stray away from customary straight relationships. Menon impeccably paints a realistic picture of the Indian ground reality remains that ease of sexuality isn't an idea that our current society understands.
“It is the unpaid labor of women on which the economy is based”
Through instances like this, Menon expansively reaches out to the issues addressed by feminists all around the world, majorly focusing over the fact that women’s household work is unpaid and, therefore, not recorded as part of GDP undervalues women’s contribution to the economy. She quotes Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second sex and with crudeness, addresses issues like the insensitive treatment of local laborer by the working class. From questioning the traditionalist and patriarchal definitions of family and marriage, to bringing us face to face with the realities of sexual violence in India, Menon's work is convincing, as it endeavors to disassemble structures, philosophies, progressive systems, and rules through simple words. For an activist in India, it opens up discussions about women existing, cooperating and battling inside the man centric society; for the accomplished women's activist, this is a boost, it is an update that as a women's activist, one should consistently continue questioning, fighting and achieving.
A professor of Political Thought at Jawaharlal Nehru University, who went on to publish a book like this, clearly threatens the preconceived notions of what feminism is and what it means to be a feminist.
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