WOMEN, QUEERS AND THE QUESTION OF EQUALITY

WOMEN, QUEERS AND EQUALITY

Swaswati Borkataki

Marilyn French writes that of all movements, the one affecting women most profoundly is the proliferation of different brands of Fundamentalism, whereby she cites the example of Christianity, which criminalized abortion in the United States.

Like French writes, people, and especially men associated with the Fundamentalist movement see Feminism as a threat, and hence work to dismantle it. They see the Feminist movement as a kind of an agency seeking to disorient the natural order of things and bring about an imbalance in their functioning.

In an interesting documentary on Netflix – Feminists: What were they thinking, few women who have dared to make a difference in the world and make their voices heard, raise a very pertinent issue – the issue of anger, and other traits that are considered to be ‘unwomanly’ – all our lives we grow up hearing the phrase – ‘Be a good girl’, and an angry girl would never qualify as a good girl.

A very significant aspect of all these feminists was the fact that all of them had educated and liberated mothers, who taught them to be feminists, to not take no for an answer and to lead the world and not be subjugated under men.

If Eve were a boy, Adam would never perhaps have plucked the forbidden apple, but if he did, there would have been more serious repercussions. Comedian and actor, Lilly Tomlin talks about the ordeals she and her brother faced for being gay. But her brother had to face uglier consequences, as he was effeminate, going by set standards which is considered to be unbecoming of a man.

In a society where the ‘binary genders’ have never been able to live at par, the non-binary genders have suffered worse fates. Our society is homophobic to the core. No matter how educated a family is, it is always difficult to accept the choice of a homosexual child. I remember how a certain intellectual once downplayed the idea of equal treatment for the third gender by stating, “Here women are suffering so bad, and you are talking about equal rights for the third gender? That will take a whole lot of time!”

Society has always quite curiously, had unwritten set norms and principles for people belonging to different genders, faiths, communities and classes. Men are considered to embody all Marsian qualities of valor, vigor and power, while women are expected to possess all qualities associated with the female planet Venus, of quiet, tranquility, patience and obedience. Judy Chicago says, ‘I have always been an extremely disobedient woman’ – women shouldn’t be disobedient if anything. That is in fact the first norm of being a ‘good woman’ or a good girl, some utopia where parents and relatives always pressurize young girls to be in.

But these norms are for the two binary genders – women are discredited and discriminated, but at least they are given rules to follow – subordinate, yes, but they have a role to play in society. What role does a transgender have? Well, nothing. Non binary genders are not considered to play any effective part in the functioning of the society – they are neither from Mars, nor from Venus.

Michel Foucault writes in his History of Sexuality about how societies have always looked at the relations between men and women and have completely wiped out the history of other genders, or in ways have never taken them into account.

Foucault writes about how the Victorian Age brought about a number of censorships with regard to Gender, Sexuality and life.

Foucault deems the 17^th century as the beginning of the ‘Age of repression’. He talks about the new restrictions that were imposed upon societies, about anything related to sex and sexuality, so much so that even the restrictions were imposed indirectly, without naming the words.

The repression, impositions and stringency about matters related to sexuality in the following centuries can be said to have been a product of the Victorian Age. These restrictions percolated to societies and communities across the world and solidified into a complex matrix of set norms and regulations defining gender behavior, distinctions and differences, constructs and so on.

There have been numerous attempts at changing the scenario in the form of protests and demonstrations, where women shouted slogans for equal pay, right to vote, right to work, education and a decent standard of living, where queers took pride in being ‘queer’ and feminists holding placards of equality. But how much of a difference have they been able to make?

Gender equality is still a far cry for women and non binary genders alike. Equal pay, equal status and equal say are utopian ideas that do not seem to be transformed into a concrete reality anytime soon.

But the positive aspect is that women are now coming out in the open and demanding their rights, at least partially, and so are queers (though the word queer itself is problematic and highlights social inequalities). With victims and activists clubbing together and raising their voices against discrimination, we can but hope that there will be change, if not in the near, then somewhere in the distant future. 

(Swaswati Borkataki is a PhD Research Scholar in JNU, New Delhi.)