Some time back I came across this beautiful film, The Battle of the Sexes (2017), which portrays the phenomena primarily from the tennis world during the early 1970’s. During this period, the women’s liberation movement was gaining ground. Patriarchy was being contested and the face and character of society were gradually being turned.
Let’s understand it
In such a circumstance, Bobby Riggs, a retired tennis player and compulsive gambler backed up tennis officers’ decision to pay women less than men. He publicly declared that women were weaker than men and their match wasn’t even half as exciting as that of men. Besides, very few people went to watch them. He embodied the popular doctrine of the time, male chauvinism, and even went as far as calling himself a “male chauvinist pig”.
The film neatly brings out the battle of the sexes; the battle of opposing ideologies: male chauvinism and women’s liberation and the battle of civilization: modernism against traditionalism. Riggs challenged the then, women’s number one, Margaret Court and conquered her with simplicity in straight sets. In doing this he believed he’d once and for all established male supremacy and demonstrated that girls were in actuality,’lesser’ than men. If a woman in her prime could not conquer a retired sportsman, then no female athlete can claim equal recognition, anything or pay when compared with men.
Riggs however, grew overconfident and contested the leader of women’s equal status in tennis, Billie Jean King. Billie agreed to confront him with great hesitation. The game was highly publicized and even dubbed’The Battle of the Sexes’. Billie went on to defeat Bobby and sending out a loud and shrill message to the entire world: women were less than men. Despite the fact that that infamous baseball match has been dubbed ‘The Battle of the Sexes’, the actual battle was raging probably since Man’s fall from Original Grace.
Remember
When God created people He left them complementary to each other (Gen 1:26-28). He ordained that man should dominate girl. But through sin and in sin, man not only dominated the world, he also dominated girl. In the past 60 years however, because of motions like women’s liberation, issues like equality of the genders, respect for women, wages and so forth, have come before public consciousness and have increasingly grown as a subject of discussion and disagreement.
Progress has been horribly slow, but has yet happened. The current case of the Weinstein scandal only serves to reiterate my point of this snail-pace of advancement. In India – a land of varied cultural and religious traditions, each with its own method of honouring or subjugating women – the situation is not very agreeable. In actuality, it’s quite dreadful. The Nirbhaya case among countless others are still fresh in our minds. Everyday’s news has a report on violence against women.
What could possibly be the source of all this insanity? To be able to answer this question I think it’s very important that we ask and answer another question:”When does a man child realize he’s superior to a female?” It might appear odd but it’s critical. A child is struggling until a specific age to differentiate between male and female. Even if it does so, it’s only able to recognize differences and similarities. The child has no idea of inferior or superior. When and how can he start to realize that he’s superior then? Obviously socialization and upbringing play a significant role.
Take into account
By observing how his family or the community or society into which he is born and raised functions, he starts to form thoughts, mould character and layout behavior. A child is very likely to treat women in a way he has seen growing up. Therefore, I think that treating a woman as you’d treat your grandmother, mother, aunt, sister, relative or spouse would solve half the issues. But a enormous barrier arises: what about those people who don’t treat their grandmother, mother, aunt, sister, relative or spouse well? If a man is not able to relate to girls who share his blood in a healthy fashion, it’s quite unlikely that he will treat other girls nicely.
The Indian male mind is corrupt. As a result of media’s unbounded desire to”sell”, women have become objectified in just about any field of life and this denigrated picture of women is frequently splashed all about advertisements, billboards and such. With so much negativity around it requires a determined effort to ditch the alienation of women and regain the main relation. A detox of the brain is the need of the hour and strict and binding legislation will do much to help the procedure. Besides breaking down stereotypes through education and conscientizing individuals concerning the media, more powerful steps need to be taken. Actresses will need to come out stronger and put an end to an objectification of these, and mostly their bodies, through the media. I believe actresses would send a powerful message if they decided that they would not do “damsel-in-distress”, item songs and carnal appetizers in any respect.
Conclusion
If the public do not want to see them to the character they play but just for the skin they show, then no amount of money could compensate for the objectification they experience. The status of women in India is rising but aside from outside forces, girls, particularly those with power and capacity must stand up for their rights and dignity. It’s not enough that male chauvinism be convicted, feminine helplessness must also be equally condemned. It’s only then that we have hope of regaining our Original Grace and settling the”battle of the sexes” once and for all.