It’s called feminism instead of equality because it is feminine traits that men and women are shamed for.

While women are being applauded for their feats in the Air Force and the Olympics, men in India are still being shamed for a similar deviation in their career paths. Perhaps we can never call feminism redundant until we can truly begin to accept seeing men in nurse uniforms or openly support stay-at-home dads.

Simp. This is the term used to describe any guy even remotely siding with the female population. The sheer number of people against anything seen as feminine, from spending enough time trying to look presentable, to healthy expressions of pain like crying or talking it out is unnerving, to say the least.

Feminism was never meant to suppress all things feminine—it tried to do the opposite. But as time warps the strongest efforts into its harrowed down skeletons, feminism has begun to shame the very same women for taking traditionally conventional paths.

A stark example would be the meme that goes around describing women based on the lengths of the skirts. Starting from prude, old fashioned, proper, flirty, cheeky, provocative, asking-for-it and some other choice words; the judgments shift with decreasing length. What’s most disturbing is that there exist women who agree with both parts of this spectrum.

When people say, “Women are women’s worst enemies”, or that women tear each other down, I find it hard not to agree. In a country where our neighbourhood aunties take it upon themselves to issue character certificates to every woman, whilst slackening their keen eye on boys in the neighborhood, it is no surprise that things have taken this turn. Only, they haven’t. A closer inspection reveals that the problem was never women.

It was our society, which includes both men and women, that trained women to lash out at each other instead of men, and it is the same society that asks us to amplify and scrutinise every flaw in a woman.

Modern-day girls are shown to blatantly look down upon certain women in several soap operas,referring to them as behenji, a derogatory term for women who enjoy being traditional; whilst the very same serials draw parallels between westernised women and malicious intentions.

The most beloved ‘Fair and Lovely’ controversy which claimed to rename its brand name to ‘Glow and Lovely’ in order to empower dark-skinned women, continued to showcase in its ads, an extremely fair girl whose primary motto was to get fairer, only she referred to it as “glowing skin”. Kind of puts people back to right where it all started, doesn’t it?

In a world where the media continually feeds us the ideal way to put each other down and let patriarchy thrive, I’m glad there are still women who understand the implications of decades of brainwashing and are willing to fight it, against all odds.When some ignorant people claim that men aren’t responsible for the increase in harassment cases and blame it on women who wear clothes she’s comfortable in, I’m glad feminists retort, “If I slap you, it’s your fault for getting on my nerves.”

It’s 2025 now. Whether or not society in general takes a step towards respecting women’s choices, it’s high time women themselves stick with each other and defend those unable to do so themselves. This is precisely what the Netflix series, Sex Education tried to depict as well—stick together, after all, it’s just a stupid bus.

On that note, it would do well to highlight that such initiatives have already begun to work their charm, namely the Women Walk at Midnight in Delhi. The capital, already infamous for its notorious state of affairs at night, has been an abode to criminals for years now, and in order to challenge this, several women ranging from four to thirty one at a time, stroll through different neighborhoods of Delhi every month. These walks continue on to this day, and any woman, regardless of their background, is welcome to join their party. Their Instagram Handle: @wewalkatmidnight.

All in all, things are looking up a bit with regard to the future, and perhaps one day, every woman, alone or not, will be able to wander the streets on a quiet night, with music blasting out of her earphones, and nothing but joyful thoughts to give her company.