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“Oh what soft rebellion it is to be a woman on your own terms”

 As I sat down to write this first post in the series, I was overwhelmed. There are so many things to address and so many ways it could go wrong. I called up one of my friends to talk about ideas and plans. During the conversation, she said something that caught me off guard – “I’m sure you must’ve faced harassment at some point in life – you could write about that.” I paused and took a breath. She was absolutely sure that I must have encountered it and she is right. It has become so normal for women to have gone through harassment that it is practically a fact and I don’t think that’s okay.

Hi – my name is Pranjali and this is the beginning of a series titled, “to be so feminine in the wild.” This is a series of weekly blog posts where I’m going to share expressions, experiences, emotions, and questions regarding the concept of and need for feminism. 

Before we go any further, I merely want to address that my intention here is to understand and educate and not attack – we’re all in this together. While the notion of feminism has been around for some time now, there are so many things related to it that I can’t comprehend. There are issues that I am confused about as to what is right and what is wrong and where we draw the line. So this series is an attempt to figure it out together. Y’all are more than welcome to comment and express your views on the same. 

So one of the first definitions you’ll find for feminism is  “a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes.” Put even simply, in the words of Emma Watson, “Feminism is the belief that all sexes should have equal rights and opportunities.” 

Now, over 200 years of this movement, the word feminism has evolved to encompass various aspects. Every country, every religion, and every sector of society perceives and needs feminism with a different intensity. And whenever there are multiple versions of the same thing, there is bound to be one where people misunderstand it. 

I’m sure you must be aware of the false parallelism between the word feminism and the phrase man-hating. This concept, above all else, needs to be eradicated. Because while it may not be directly comprehensible – men, you need feminism too. The patriarchal society affects all genders – it just makes it slightly more obvious with women. And whether you believe it or not, this movement is for the betterment of all the sexes. 

As we go forward with this, I would be exploring specific topics related to all of this like workplace, domestic life, opinions, politics, mental health, etc. Today, I am gonna talk about the reason behind this series and a little bit about my journey. 

I like to call myself an evolving feminist because my journey has truly evolved drastically. My comprehension of the same has changed over the years and I’m sure it’ll keep evolving as I grow up. 

I could say it started at a young age, but while the conditioning had an early start, my perspective was quite mainstream. Belonging to a small city, discrimination was what I had known my entire life and it didn’t seem wrong to me. But, as I moved out for college, things started to become clearer. I learned a lot and understood the difference between what was and what should be. All of this dawned on me when I returned home for two years after merely eight months of college.

The realization began through the simplest of things – clothes. I had to be very careful with what I wore. It started there and went on to curfews and domestic work and then to bigger things like opportunities, future, life plans, marriage, and freedom. With all these boundaries – I started to pay attention by listening more and grabbing social cues. I began to follow the journeys of more women in a very innate manner. Almost like an epiphany, I finally understood that I’m a feminist and that saying it out loud doesn’t make me wrong or difficult.

I do believe that there is no end to this road and the roles will just keep expanding. So, whatever topics, questions, or comments you might wanna talk about – feel free to leave them below so that we can generate a healthy conversation. 

This topic is so very vast that this post itself could be much longer because I keep wanting to add things to it. But for now, this is where I leave you. 

Do share your thoughts in the comments below and I hope to see you here again!