Stop giving women masculine labels

AIB’s latest video with Kangana Ranaut is the talk of the town. In the video, the star takes a jibe at everything that’s wrong with the industry — prevailing nepotism, sexism, etc. However, one thing that did not go unnoticed was  Kangana being called ‘ba**sy’ for standing up for herself. She clarifies that one doesn’t have to call a woman by a masculine term if she is courageous enough to fight for herself.

In many cultures across the globe, women are expected to look and act “feminine”. And so, whenever a woman shows the grit and determination to challenge the norms of society, she is tagged as being masculine. Many fail to realise the underlying sexism in commonly used words such as ‘tomboy’ and ‘mardani’. Strong-minded and independent women are often labelled as ‘manly’.

“Sexism prevails not just in Bollywood, but everywhere. It is so blatant in the language we use on a daily basis that our writing team felt it was necessary to address it. If a man speaks about the injustice in society, he is revered as a hero, but if a woman does it, she is called brave — but like a ‘man’,” says Anuya Jakatdar, one of the writers of the AIB song.

Interestingly, if a man demonstrates feminine qualities, he is looked down upon. But if a woman has masculine qualities, it raises her standard in society. “Why call a girl ‘ba**sy’, when she doesn’t even have ba**s? There was a time when women were restricted, but now things are changing. Surely, society’s attitude towards women and the kind of words we use for them should change too. We used the phrase Cause I Have Vagina Re many times just to normalise the usage of the word vagina. Because in my experience, even people with a modern outlook shy away from using it,” says AIB writer, Manaswi Mohata.

Well-known women’s rights activist and secretary of the All India Progressive Women’s Association, Kavita Krishnan, feels a woman can be feminine and brave at the same time: “Kangana’s video does make an important point that courage has nothing to do with gender. It is based on the age-old idea that men should have certain qualities and women should have certain qualities. So whenever one gender shows any signs of the other one, society starts giving them tags like ‘brave like a man’ or ‘don’t cry like a woman’. There is a double-standard applied for women. They want us to be brave and independent; but when we are, we are called ‘manly’. This needs to change.”

“Since always, many communities have been patriarchal and sexist,” says well-known media personality Simi Chandok, adding, “So whenever there is an act of bravery, it is assumed that a man would have done it. The biggest example of this is Rani Lakshmi Bai, who is very often said to have fought bravely like a man. Even in the military, men are referred to as soldiers, but women are called ‘female’ soldiers. Women are reminded of their gender everywhere and for every action, which I believe should be stopped. Because being a woman doesn’t stop me from doing anything that a man can do.”