“Riya come back now, it’s not meant for you, you will lose everything staying there and doing it”, the angry mother had her eyes turning red already.
“But mom, I just want to try one last time, I have always wanted it. Worked for it.”-came the reply from the first girl finalist of B-Plan contest.
Call disconnected. Relations lost. Crowned the winner. Much awaited Success.
The afore mentioned lines are completely fictitious but the feelings conveyed are not. This is exactly how the society, including family reciprocates to a girl’s dreams, aspirations and start-up ideas even if you have awesome entrepreneurship skills. There are of course exceptions everywhere.
It all begins with a dream- a dream to go big, do big and be big. When a man has a dream, he has all the rights with no restrictions from the so-called society to work for it. So he does work for it, materialises it and climbs the peaks of success. On the other hand, when a woman has a dream, she needs to get permission from her family plus the society to even think about materializing it. If permission-not-granted, then a woman is supposed to forget about it as if it never happened and get busy with household responsibilities. And exactly why is that? The answer lies within us, in our own preconceived notions about what is good for a woman and what is not.
In fact, whenever a local aunt tells a girl “Beta, you should not do this. It’s bad for girls.“- She is not in all probability thinking about the welfare of the girl. She just euphemized the notion that “it’s not for girls”. So does the society.
Going by the definition of society, it is described as a group of people involved in persistent social interaction. But in today’s world, the young generation, especially the women see society as the cage with bars of preconceived notions and rules in which they and their desire to do something new like being an entrepreneur are trapped. Often their dreams and ideas die a premature death owing to the Invisibles chains of traditions and myths of the society.
If a girl good at something in the day, she is a star. But if the same girl is good at the same job at night, she is a slut. This is exactly how people see women and their work but fail to realise that the women in their own house are a storehouse of entrepreneurship skills. The society, rather the people have blindly accepted the definitions of success, rebel and even a woman as they had been centuries ago.
We define success as something that avoids chances of things turning bad along with monetary benefit. But success actually is the removal of all fears of things turning bad in any way. Getting success is no small game, it takes a lot to climb the ladder of success. In a male dominant society like in India, we are of the belief that women can’t do things on their own to get success and hence shouldn’t even bother trying to be an entrepreneur. Whenever a woman tries to break this notion that she can do more than raising kids and making a home, she is termed a ‘rebel’.
Is it so wrong for a woman to do something she loves outside the house? For now people reading this article will think and say “of course not, women have equal rights”, but then again tomorrow morning they expect their mother, wife, daughter, sister or girlfriend to make them their topmost priority or at least always put house and relations before their goals and ambitions; and if needed, they should give up on their ambitions and take full domestic responsibilities in their hand. And if a woman refuses to do so, she is a rebel.
Now the actual story begins. As long as a woman is treated nicely, she is nice and loving towards all. But the moment you disregard her or anything associated with her, she will never leave any stone unturned to prove herself.
A woman is not a rebel for just her wish to fulfil her dreams, she is a rebel to prove herself, she is a rebel to give back what the society has given her, good or bad, she is a rebel to show her husband or boyfriend or brother that she keeps equal potential as them, she is a rebel to create examples for other women.
More than a rebel, she is an injured lioness, who is working day and night to show the world that society can be wrong about its concept of a woman. There are a number of reasons that forces a woman to rebel against the rules imposed on her by the society.
For the chauvinistic nature of men, women often feel insulted and are actually looked down upon. No human, man or woman can ever live with that. At times, in order to support her own family a woman needs to break the barriers created by society and fight for her living. It often gets necessary to be a rebel, to get out of house, out of relations to discover one’s true self.
Our family scheme is laid in such a manner that it endows a woman with all the domestic responsibilities, ruling out the possibility of having a dream or ambition. The bigger problem with it is that the people of the society hate changes rather than favouring if it hampers their own lifestyle.
We are ling amongst people, maximum of whom are hypocrites. On one hand, they say ‘Women are equal to Men’, and on the other hand, they impose restrictions on the women of their own house. The worst part is it just doesn’t end there. People tend to carry this mind-set everywhere and try imposing it on their girlfriend, friends, sisters’ friends and almost everyone.
“Stop judging people, everyone has equal rights and potential as well.”
Just as every male adult has the right to decide and live independently so has every girl the right to dream and work without being a rebel. But alas! Society.
So the next time the local aunt says anything that is “not good” for you, be a Rebel.
