Portraits in Baroda
I wish to thank everyone in Baroda who posed for me: forgive me and my nasty camera for intruding into your beautiful lives. Thank you for a great trip!
---
Portraits that share people's stories are want I wanted to leave behind, for someday that it may have greater significance, for the people themselves, or others who relate to them, or maybe just for the future, when times change and all that's left of today, are memories.
Why do we like obedient girls? Because they make silent wives who cook, keep the house clean and listen well to their in-laws. Why does everyone want a boy-child? Because a girl is going to get married and leave the house anyway. This is also why they sometimes neglect her education. There's another popular belief: the wife should be well-educated. That way the children will be raised well. But she shouldn't be allowed to get a job. Working women are cocky, unreliable and less obedient to their husbands, because of lower dependency. They are also heavily discriminated in their work-places.
You've probably heard similar feminist commentary before, many times perhaps and are sick of it. It's too bad that I don't care, because the portrait of this smiling lady gives me a lot of inspiration to stop keeping myself inside the fence society constructed for me, but look beyond the bars, find the gap between them, and set myself free, because the society or anyone else is not going to be able to do that for me anytime soon. I have to find my own way. It may be unfair, and more painful compared to those who have it easier, but girls that just makes us tougher.
No one needs protection as much as they need empowerment.
I wonder how many people think that the fence that society has built around us is to protect us. Does it really help? Do we need someone to depend on, or the means to be independent?
Real compassion doesn't lie in the temporary help of empathy, but the true effort of empowerment.
---
Portraits that share people's stories are want I wanted to leave behind, for someday that it may have greater significance, for the people themselves, or others who relate to them, or maybe just for the future, when times change and all that's left of today, are memories.
Why do we like obedient girls? Because they make silent wives who cook, keep the house clean and listen well to their in-laws. Why does everyone want a boy-child? Because a girl is going to get married and leave the house anyway. This is also why they sometimes neglect her education. There's another popular belief: the wife should be well-educated. That way the children will be raised well. But she shouldn't be allowed to get a job. Working women are cocky, unreliable and less obedient to their husbands, because of lower dependency. They are also heavily discriminated in their work-places.
You've probably heard similar feminist commentary before, many times perhaps and are sick of it. It's too bad that I don't care, because the portrait of this smiling lady gives me a lot of inspiration to stop keeping myself inside the fence society constructed for me, but look beyond the bars, find the gap between them, and set myself free, because the society or anyone else is not going to be able to do that for me anytime soon. I have to find my own way. It may be unfair, and more painful compared to those who have it easier, but girls that just makes us tougher.
No one needs protection as much as they need empowerment.
I wonder how many people think that the fence that society has built around us is to protect us. Does it really help? Do we need someone to depend on, or the means to be independent?
Real compassion doesn't lie in the temporary help of empathy, but the true effort of empowerment.
Comments
Post a Comment