Friday, May 28, 2004
the herione of the bell jar is told that wanting two mutually exclusive things means you're neurotic. i wonder. most of the intellectual women i know and admire are sharp, bright, intelligent women who are well-read, speak perfect English and Urdu, hold foreign degrees and speak their mind. they run NGOs, they write books, they have discussions about politics and art.and are single. divorced, never married or married with a nonexistent, nonentity spouse, these women are largely man-less. and i wonder if i will have to make a choice. i think it’s unfair that one even has to think of such a thing- are there no desi men who won’t feel threatened by an intelligent, assertive woman who speaks her mind and can hold her own in a debate? no, but those are feminists na, and hence don’t deserve to have a door opened for them or their suitcase carried because they want to be equal, so it’s okay to cuss in front of them and call them lesbians. this is equality. so i suppose this means that every simpering singsong-voiced sham of a woman is manfully protected and pampered by her menfolk while the confident no-lacy-frills-on-her-shalwar types have to stand in lines and endure being harassed because ‘she had it coming’. i’d like to know one thing though- which one of these women would you respect more? which one would you want to be the mother of your children? the very pretty, entirely feminine miss who will have the perfect hair, nails and body but couldn’t comfort a child in a thunderstorm because she’d be too busy hiding under the bed- or someone who may not know that lime green is the new hot pink, but will twist her hair up and change a tyre, kill cockroaches for a toddler stranded on a toilet and be the first one to press her nose against the window when it rains?
so what'll it be? homemaker or intellectual...writer or wife/mother? should anyone have to choose? maybe we should all just be neurotic.
Mina at 12:23 AM
