I am an 18 year old woman. I don't know if should call myself a woman or a girl. Both seem appropriate and yet inappropriate. My name is Sunaina. It means one with beautiful eyes. My grandmother named me Sunaina, since I had large eyes when I was born. They are still large and the most prominent feature on my face. I live in Calicut with my family. My family is a huge one. My father's family, my Patti, and my father's two brothers with their families stay with us. They call it a joint family, but I don’t think we are joint in anyway.
I have a very peculiar problem. I don't know if I must call it a problem or a worry. A problem or a worry means the same thing. The thing is that I don’t want to worry about this problem I have, since I don’t think its a problem at all. The people around me make me realise that I have this problem. I am a woman with a small build. I don’t have huge breasts. I have been ridiculed and made to feel small because of this. My Patti tells me that I can never satisfy a man and I am a shame to the family. She even asked my mother take me to a doctor to solve this problem of mine. The doctor shouted at my mother for putting me in such an embarrassing situation. She told me not to worry about it and said that it was perfectly alright to have small breasts.
Every day I travel by bus to college. The bus often is crowded. The bus is so crowded that people fall on one another. Sometimes the pushing gets very bad. Many a time a few men take advantage of this situation. On the pretext of moving, they rub their genitals on my back in the process. The feeling is miserable. Many a times they have pinched and fondled my breasts. It hurts a lot both physically and mentally. I try resisting but sometimes I cannot prevent myself being touched. I once told my boyfriend about these incidents in the bus and he ridiculed at me by saying “You have such small ones why would anyone do that?" I felt miserable about myself for an entire week after that.
I wonder why these men do this to me. What is their intention? Do they do it because it gives them pleasure, or they think it gives me pleasure? According to my grandmother, I could never satisfy a man. Then why do I get fondled each day?
If a man has small genitals, no one would even know except his wife. He wouldn't suffer a complex about it. When I get touched and fondled, I wish I can pull down the guy’s zippers and do to him the same things that are done to me. I wish I can pass on the misery I face each day. I wish I can comment on the size of his prized masculine possession and other things. But I know I would never be able to do it.
Women's liberation to me is not about banishing female infanticide or the women’s reservation bill. Liberation to me means looking at a woman beyond just her breasts.
5 comments:
Good one.. awesome..
Sunaina,
I'm sorry you have to go through this bullshit. I feel quite hurt and embarrassed to live in a society that treats women worse than cattle.
1. Your grandmother (sorry to be rude) is an unintelligent woman. She has the slave mentality she was brought up on from a young age. She feels all that a woman is for is satisfying a man. Being a wife, pop out babies, bring them up, take care of the house, cook etc., Please do NOT take her words seriously, she is a person who lives in her past. You cannot change her. She has willingly accepted the discrimination that has been indicted on her. So much that she has even been convinced that it is rightful for people to treat her like she has been and is convinced by it.
2. Men like women, small or big breasts. From a personal standpoint i can state this for sure. Regardless of you wearing a bikini or a burkha men WILL rub against you if they feel like it. That is men by design. You cannot change that in our society. We've never been brought up to respect another persons space. Thank population for this. We have never practiced space in between the next person in a queue. We tailgate on the road behind other vehicles. We do NOT know what space is. This is a good way for men to ABUSE this problem. Women abuse it too but then its a fraction of what men do.
3. Your boyfriend was probably trying to act smart by cracking a joke to get you to stop worrying. If i were him, i think i may have done the same kind of stuff. We men try to brush away problems without a solution in the short term with a joke when it is with our women or close friends. For all reasons, give your boyfriend the benefit of doubt. He made a joke, a thoughtless one. A very bad one. Little would he have imagined it would have hurt this much.
Dear Sunaina,
I understand how you feel. All I want to tell you is liberation starts from within. Don't ever let other people's opinions or views color your own judgement.
Be your best friend and love yourself unconditionally - ALWAYS.
As for all those groping a**holes, unfortunately they will always be around so we need to be prepared to deal with them.
Here are some tips to handle them :
Carry a good safety pin or similar sharp instrument with you and use it sensibly... or scream loudly and attract attention ... put a bulky bag as a backpack and hold something in front of you... :)
Take care & keep smiling
H
An Ukranian female friend living in India punched a guy who tried to do this. Punched the face in.
well written...
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