Men: Did You make woman the Weaker Sex?

Shaumik Samar Ghosh, TIR, 28 April 2014: I wonder what Mr. Mulayam Singh Yadav and Mr. Abu Azmi think of women? Going by the recent statements they have made it certainly seems that both these gentlemen see no difference between women and biryani. Or are they trying to woo more and more rapists for votes by advocating them?

Simone De Beauvoir, a French existentialist philosopher wrote extensively on feminism and her works are still widely appreciated by literary figures and critics around the world. She worked alongside great existentialist writers like Albert Camus and Maurice Merlean Ponty. Existentialist philosophy became more fashionable in the post world war era; in a way to reaffirm the importance of human individuality and liberty.

De Beauvoir’s’ approach to existentialism was an amalgamation of different political and ethical views. “A woman is not born one but is made one” comes from her book “The Second Sex” published in 1972. De Beauvoir wanted to establish the fact that throughout the course of history women have been made to believe that they are the inferior and secondary gender. They are expected to mutely accept the roles assigned to them by their society. Beauvoir’s “The Second Sex is considered to be her greatest contribution to the world of philosophy. This book was published in two volumes in the year 1949. It was considered so controversial that the Vatican felt the need to prohibit it from public reading. Beauvoir was the first to explore philosophy on women from a daring perspective.

In India woman emancipation has been one the most burning issues since time immemorial. Raja Ram Mohan Roy abolished the sati system in India which prescribed that women too should die if her husband is dead. She must be burnt in the same funeral pyre. Roy’s attempts to abolish Sati were largely manifested by his concern for the decaying morality that was driven by religion. It was the sight of the burning of his brother’s widow on her husband’s funeral pyre and his inability to save her that spurred Ram Mohan into action.

He researched and studied the philosophical scriptures meticulously and proved that the practice of Sati can never assure a woman ultimate salvation that is “moksha” as each man is born with his individual destiny. His tireless endeavours were finally rewarded when William Bentinck’s administration banned the practice of Sati in 1929.He was the first man to highlight the fact that in ancient Hindu scriptures, women were equally independent as men.

Women in rural India still have to bear the brunt of orthodox and dogmatic traditional practices which stifle their growth as an independent identity. Epics like the Mahabharata and Ramayana are shining examples of women being considered the weaker and subservient sex. In the Ramayana Lord Rama puts his wife through an agni-pareeksha(firetest) as he doubted that his wife had lost her chastity after living as a captive of Ravana(the demon god) for such a long time. In the Mahabharata when the five Pandav brothers return victorious after winning a battle they go to seek the blessings of their mother Kunti who orders them to divide whatever they have brought with them equally among the five brothers,hence Draupadi had to accept all the five men as her spouses. She had to silently embrace this verdict.

Even Greek philosophy has deemed women to be the inferior race. Aristotle categorically stated that women were meant to rear and bear children as they are incapable of producing a child themselves they need the help of men to do so; in his opinion women were nothing but inferior males. Aristotle concludes, ‘is as it were an infertile male’ (Generation of Animals, I, 728a).‘A male is male in virtue of a particular ability, and a female in virtue of a particular inability’ (Generation of Animals, I, 82f).

On the other hand Plato had mixed feelings about women. In his book Republic he forecasts a time when women shall be entitled to equal education as men and they will enjoy the same social status too. But at the same time he saw women as the degenerated form of the ideal human nature. He believed that it were only men who were the perfect creation of God. Those men who are unmanly cowards in their previous birth are born as women; hence a woman’s life was nothing but a punishment accosted by God. If the man does not display any valour he shall continue to be reincarnated as a woman and lead a life of misery and slavery, so the best thing that a woman can hope for is to be born as a man in her next birth.

Aristotle constantly denigrated the female, asserting that man rightly commands the woman, because he has superior intelligence. This will also profit the women who are dependent on him. He compares this to the relationship between human beings and tame animals.

This is how most, if not all people thought in the ancient Middle East. The same basic ideology would dominate the Christian Middle Ages too. It is evident that Christians who accepted the view that woman are inferior by nature, could not imagine the prospect of her in the leadership role demanded of priests and bishops.

Women have a different biological architecture but what about their psychology? Sigmund Freud’s views of the woman psyche were very controversial. He argued that ‘The great question that has never been answered, and which I have not yet been able to answer, despite my thirty years of research into the feminine soul, is ‘What does a woman want?’”. He also wrote in a 1925 paper entitled “The Psychical Consequences of the Anatomic Distinction between the Sexes.” that “Women oppose change, receive passively, and add nothing of their own.” His theories about woman and womanhood have been challenged by modern day psychologists who say that his own life was greatly influenced by many women whom he probably failed to acknowledge while doing his research.

In her first book “Facts and Myths” De Beauvoir examines feminism from three perspectives – biology, psychoanalysis and historical materialism. She observes that women are different in all respects than men but that does not make them any inferior. She also shuns the myth of being ‘eternal feminine’ and implies that this is a term born out of sheer male discomfort. Just because the woman has the biological anatomy that can produce a new life, she has been heralded as the carrier of life and death. There are too many myths associated with women which need to be corrected if women have to enjoy social equality. She silently accepts the fate that has been thrust upon her without questioning it and that is her failure. Even the field of literature has done injustice to women where they have either been epitomized as desirable objects of beauty or complacent figures who don’t mind sacrificing their happiness and identity.

In her second book “Woman’s life today’ De Beauvoir traces female development through its formative stages: childhood, youth, and then sexual initiation. Her aim is to prove the fact that women are not born “feminine” but are moulded to become so by several external processes. She observes that how, at each stage of her upbringing, the girl is drawn into accepting passivity, dependence, repetition, and inwardness. All forces in the society consciously rob her of her individuality and turn her into a passive object.

The woman has the right to choose for herself but due to societal pressures she ends up choosing a life of sexual slavery, household work and bearing children. She must strive to attain a life of creative possibilities and self independence. Why does a woman always have to be a wife, or a mother, or an entertainer? That is because she has never thought differently of herself. Irrespective of economic status the woman gets inevitably drawn into the web of domesticity and household.

In the last of this section, “Woman’s Situation and Character,” de Beauvoir rekindles the controversial claim that woman’s situation is not a result of her character; rather, her character is a result of her situation. Her tendency to quietly accept, not question, complacency, passivity; all these attributes are the result of her subordination, they are not the root cause.

There is no doubt that de Beauvoir’s thesis has great relevance even in today’s times and there have to be concerted efforts at a socio-political and economic level in every country and society to usher in liberation and autonomy for women. We sincerely hope someday, Mr. Yadav and Mr. Azmi start thinking differently about women. Better late than never!

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