No, it’s not a typo. I didn’t mean to write charity. It says exactly what you read. Sexism is what we see around every day, starting from our own house and yet gets ignored quite easily. Sexism is basically, a belief system that works on stereotyping a gender with specific gender roles and behaviours and considering a particular sex less efficient than the other, especially women.
It’s quite easy to point out instances of
sexism being practiced in work environments, society or any other exterior
surroundings but we turn a blind eye to it when it happens in our own home. As
much as it stings to hear this, it is true. When we wish to bring changes in
the society we live in, we should start the change from the house we live in.
Things that Happen Around Us
There are subtle hints of sexism being thrown,
not so extravagant; but no less important. For example, the duties of household
chores only assigned to the women of the house. Now as basic as it may sound,
it is a form of sexism being practiced almost in every house and unfortunately
this practice is normalised to such extreme that we don’t even realise it as
sexism. Household isn’t even considered as real work but ironically when men do
it once a week or one day out of the blue out of their social obligation, they
are appreciated.
Women, themselves, don’t find this problematic and it’s really sad. We must all have witnessed our mothers waiting for hours until our fathers come home so that they could dine together even if she is really hungry and worked hard the whole day.
If you call this a symbol
of love then why isn’t the same love reciprocated by our fathers? The last time
you had to go to a family gathering and your mother took some more time than
expected to get ready, didn’t your father yell at her for taking so much time?
Yes sir, he did. And how blatantly we accept such double standards and never
even think to question it.
We see our mothers, sisters, aunts toiling
entire day in the kitchen for making the best dishes that would please the guests
and make sure the house shines like some silverware so that a good impression
is been made on the guests coming while on the other hand, the men of the
house, our fathers, brothers, uncles sit with leisure on the couch and crack
inappropriate wife jokes at the same time while the ladies smile uncomfortably
to each other.
The most scary part is normalising all these behaviours and not identifying it as sexism when we all know, it absolutely is. We only focus on the sexism being practiced on the highest scale like assault, sexual harassment, prejudices at workplaces, catcalling etc, but we fail to understand that all these underlie the casual sexism women face every day and it is because we chose to ignore that, it has reached to the unimaginable heights.
So, the next time you see your father taunting your mother saying what work she does all day at home, tell him “I do more than you could ever”. Sexism begins at home and shall be stopped from home. Make a fuss about it, it deserves being talked about.
Written by - Khadija Kapasi
Edited by - Keerthana Lakshmi
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