CINDERELLA could and should have stayed home and written notes about an imagined ball, reinvented the characters and made herself more than a girl who must aspire for beauty and validation from a prince, substituted velvet slippers in deep crimson rather than leaving a glass slipper behind.
When I read her story as a little girl, I had cheered and clapped when the prince found her,
In my forties, I think little girls should not read such fairy tales where a prince finds a girl with a slipper in hand and all is well. They end with "happily ever after". Girls discovered by men. That's how we grow up. Metamorphosis is personal. And all that is personal is political.
Rather, little girls should read about Alice in that Wonderland who believed in six impossible things before breakfast, who slayed the demon bird and exited the Wonderland.
A girl once and a woman now, I should edit these fairy tales, these mythological texts where women are prized possessions, decorations, and their worth and curse are tied to their "beauty".
There are so many moral things around everything that a woman does in our culture. Make-up, appearance and of course, political views. All these make-up brands and all the influencers telling every woman out there to use serums and lotions and go for cosmetic surgeries to look more beautiful and younger are hitting at the core of what we have always faced-invisibility, insecurity, indignity.
Denne historien er fra March 21, 2024-utgaven av Outlook.
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Denne historien er fra March 21, 2024-utgaven av Outlook.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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The 'Invisible' Dalits
The debate over sub-categorisation of castes is likely to shape the political discourse in the upcoming state elections
Caste Census: To Conquer Or Conserve?
The caste census is generating heated debate, but even its most ardent proponents are not able to articulate a plan about how to use the resulting data
THE FATEFUL COMEDY
Actor-director Rajat Kapoor talks about adapting Fyodor Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov into a Hindi play
Mad Hatter
When a leader takes off his topi and holds it in his hands while appealing for votes, it signals something extraordinary
Circle Within Circles
The caste question in Muslims.
Backward March
The Maratha reservation question may continue to mire the next government in the state
The 69% Exception
Quota within quota: lessons to be learned from Tamil Nadu
United Indifference
The perils of tweaking tribal identities
Two Nations, Two Destinies
The widely differing balance of power between the military and civilian leadership in India and Pakistan has significantly impacted democracy in the two countries
Crème de la Crème
The mainstream society thinks reservations are against right to equality. It’s high time they are seen in the context of right to justice.
