Feminism – Ramana's Musings

Woman.

As it happens so often in my life, two different sources sent me two different links to two different you tube offerings but, on the same subject on the same day. The first one is about a mother and the second about a wife.

Both appealed to me and also affected me deeply and I want to share it with my readers. Though both are presented by Indians, their messages are universal and applicable to all mothers and wives. I hope that these two videos touch my readers as much as they touched me.

The first video is by Hari Sankar…a Grandmaster in Chess who has won a slew of awards…at one stage he was in the top 5 or 7 in the world..like Viswanathan Anand, it was his mother who was the motivating force to take up Chess. He is from Andhra Pradesh. Despite trying to be funny, he manages to convey a profound statement about motherhood and women.

The next one is from an older man who while presenting the poem is quite affected.

Contradiction.

I hope that you enjoy reading this post on the weekly Friday Loose Bloggers Consortium where eleven of us write on the same topic. Today’s topic has been chosen by Maria the gaelikaa. The ten other bloggers who write regularly are, in alphabetical order, Delirious, gaelikaa, Grannymar, Maxi, Maria SF, Padmum, Paul, Rohit,Shackman, The Old Fossil and Will. Do drop in on their blogs and see what their take is on this week’s topic. Since some of them may post late, do give some allowance for that too!

“That man is a creature who needs order yet yearns for change, is the creative contradiction at the heart of the laws which structure his conformity and define his deviancy.”
~ Freda Adler.

Freda Adler is most famous for her proposal that Feminism increased opportunities and more importantly desire for women to take part in criminal activities. Here is one instance of contradictions straight away. A classic chicken and egg situation that no one suggested because statistics can be interpreted anyway one wants.

Coming to the quote itself, the creative contradiction that Freda writes about, is profound in its total banality. Conformity and Deviancy are contradictions? What laws? When you consider that each of us marches to our individual drum beats, surely, the laws themselves contradict each other at need?

I am often criticised by well meaning friends for being inconsistent and contradicting myself. My answer has always been that consistency is for stagnant people and contradicting oneself means that one is open to change one’s opinions, values and morals to suit particular contexts. The human condition is more like this and must be accepted for its contradictory attraction.

I would have however added another line at the bottom of the lower sign, AT YOUR PERIL.

“Great truth is a statement whose opposite is also a great truth.”
~ Niels Bohr.

Do you believe “Good things come in small packages” or “The bigger, the better”?

Sex, and the feminist’s new clothes.

I hope that this post provokes some thought!

Had I or any other male written it, instead of that institution Christina Patteson, there would have been hell to pay.

I shall therefore refrain from adding any spice to this article that appeared in the Independent and leave it to my readers to comment.

Just to liven up the discussions however, I reproduce below graffiti from a Pakistani wall.