We Decoded The Sexism Behind These 12 Common Statements Women Hear Every Day
chaitra krishnanMA (Journalism & Mass Communication) Experience: 5 yearsChaitra has a triple main bachelor’s degree in journalism, communicative English, and economics from St. Aloysius College, Mangalore, and a master’s degree in journalism and mass communication from St... more
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Women all over the world face sexism on a daily basis. And if you’re an Indian woman, multiply its frequency by fifty. Born as a woman in an extremely patriarchal society with hints of misogyny is like getting stuck on a freshly tarred road. It’s bothering you, but you’re stuck. Even when you were born, someone or the other would have passed a sexist comment about you to your parents and that’s the depth of this issue in our society. While women have slowly started reacting against outrageous sexism, there are other areas to the same issue that they choose to ignore. Simply because some things happen so often, they are normalized. You don’t get paid as much as your male colleagues do even if you both do the same work, you always get compared to your male sibling or male friend, and you are always expected to behave “like a girl.”
However, it’s high time that you reacted to such comments and stereotypes strongly. This is why we’ve got you a list of some of the most common sexist statements women hear every day. Read on to know more.
1. Why Are You Sitting Like A Guy?
Girls are expected to sit in an “orderly fashion” and are not supposed to lift their feet up on the chair or spread them apart. And it’s not just about sitting; girls are taught to walk, talk, smile, dress, and do every other human thing differently.
2. On Government Forms: You Are Daughter/ Wife Of?
Many forms require you to fill in the information regarding your father or husband. This rule applies even if you are a strong, independent woman who handles a team of thirty men at work. It’s almost like a woman can never have an identity that isn’t attached to her father or husband’s name. For many women in India, their second name is that of their father’s and after they get married, some of them change it to that of their husband. C’mon people! Marriage isn’t transfer of ownership.
3. Are you planning to work after studies/marriage/pregnancy?
Asked nobody ever to a boy/ man. Somehow people keep expecting a woman to prioritize everything else in her life above her career. At the same time, it’s considered to be a given, that men work after their studies, marriage, and after they become a father.
4. Your Favorite Color Must Be Pink
Pink has always been associated with femininity. Remember pink balloons for girl babies and blue balloons for boy babies? But, nobody ever assumes that a man’s favorite color is blue.
5. Shaadi Ke Baad Kar Le Na
There’s nothing that a woman can do before marriage. Travel, job, lovemaking, parenthood are some of the most important things that our parents believe we should do only after marriage. According to them, you get all the freedom in the world once you’re married. After the “transfer of ownership”, you’re not their headache anymore.
6. Are You PMSing?
Angry, sad, happy— it’s all because you’re PMSing. PMS (Premenstrual Syndrome) is as true as the broad daylight but that doesn’t mean a woman has all sorts of emotions only because of that. The next time a guy tells you this, you can probably point out the time he was angry and ask him if that was due to PMS.
7. “Dekhna ladka hi hoga”
Many Indian families even today pray and perform poojas so that the pregnant lady delivers a boy baby. Well, in a country where female feticide and infanticide is ridiculously high, this isn’t unexpected. But just imagine the plight of the mother-to-be when bombarded with bizarre comments like these!
8. You Shouldn’t Earn More Than Your Husband
In an arranged marriage, men always search for women who earn lesser than them. This is a great example of male insecurities. These men and their families often feel that if the wife earns more than the husband, she will have the upper hand in the relationship which is unacceptable and shameful.
9. When Girls Say No, There’s Still Space To Wiggle
When a girl says “no,” it means no. Just because she’s a girl, she isn’t going to give you any wiggle space.
10. Bachche Bigad Gaye Toh Maa Ko Hi Doshi Teherathe Hai
No matter how naughty the kids are, the mother is the one who always gets blamed. It’s almost as if the father has no role in the birth or the upbringing of his children.
11. You Don’t Even Know How To Cook
Women are supposed to know cooking even if they are successful enough to appoint ten cooks. But it’s “cute” and a “great effort” when a man cooks in order to help his wife.
12. Women Are Bad At Math
Women are often believed to be weak with numbers. The next time someone tells this to you, bring out a list of successful women mathematicians and scientists to them. Just because some women aren’t good at it or they aren’t interested in math, it doesn’t mean that all women are bad at math and all men are scholars in the subject.
The next time you hear such comments, we hope you will be prepared to knock them out of the park “like a girl.” These are just a few examples of the hilarious and obnoxious comments that women hear every day. You are welcome to add more to this list in the comments section below.
