In the words of the esteemed William Shakespeare, and also in my almost humble opinion, ‘Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned’. For, perhaps, hell is the fury of a woman scorned.
Feminism has been a term commonly associated with females, particularly those with a strong sense of identity and independence. But what many people don’t realize is that there are many female chauvinists around too. Yes, it is a term used for males but the fairer sex too has this quality, and usually without realizing it themselves. They, perhaps, consider it as an additional ‘something’ that comes with the package of womanhood followed by enlightenment.
To my surprise, the term ‘female chauvinist’ does not exist in the Oxford English Dictionary contrary to the fact that the term ‘male chauvinist’ is there and could serve the purpose for both — feminism and female chauvinism. And perhaps this is one of the reasons why many feminists and pro-feminists end up being female chauvinists. The difference between the two is huge or even ‘major’ for that matter, but the dividing line is very vague and undefined.
I will confess that I too developed a chauvinistic vision of life and took sometime to realize it. However, a few incidents brought the truth home to me.
One morning, I walked to the bus stop to catch a bus for the university that I attend. As I made my way, each and every male that I passed by became a victim of my critical eye, which declared each one of them silently as creatures utterly despicable. Yet, I considered myself a highly liberal and a broad-minded person, possessed by a pride too falsely indigenous to question itself. And thanks to my blindness, I never thought that I was not a pro-feminist but a female chauvinist.
My chauvinism began right from the time I became aware of how shameful and humiliating a woman’s existence is considered to be, practically by everybody, even by the woman herself. I strongly began to believe that every man was essentially evil. But, I will not say that my beliefs today are not the way they were three or four years ago, but the intensity has lessened as now I can distinguish whether I am being fair to men or being a chauvinist like them. I strongly believed that the felonies committed by men on sexual grounds were entirely due to their own vileness, heinousness, intellectual incapability and moral baseness.
At one point in time, I felt like exterminating the entire male race. This was due to some unpleasant experiences of myself and others. Actually, majority of women in our male dominated society are victims of harassment in one form or the other and such incidents have become almost-accepted norms today. I wholeheartedly desired for a world free of all evil, or men in other words. To me the two words became perfectly synonymous and I would use them in place of one another so often that the difference between the two in my mind began to diminish. A kind of frustration had began to build up, particularly as a result of the awareness of the malfunctioning legal system of the state.
Fickleness, untrustworthiness, corruption and traits similar to these were all what the male species possessed in my opinion. In this passionate hatred of mine, I completely forgot that there still remained one son of Adam who had nothing else for me but love and well wishes. I forgot my own father. The love and the care that I received from him before and after the demise of my mother — his continued sacrifices for me and my siblings in each and every aspect of live, his and ours. He would show me all sides of the picture and let me make the choices.
To generalize all men out of hatred for what a few of them have done is wrong and unjust. However, chauvinism cannot be avoided especially in the cases when women have to go out of the house each day to work or study, or for that matter, going out for any purpose ‘on foot’ or even otherwise.
What is important is that the dividing line between the feminist and the female chauvinist vision must be clearly identified, along with one’s own attitude, so as to understand one’s own self better. And to make things easier for many chauvinists, to know one’s self does not require one to give up their chauvinistic vision. There are such sons of Adam, as the one I learned to identify and appreciate, who are a woman’s best friend.
