Headless chicken...

Ok this missive is totally Smriti insired. I was about to go to bed when Smriti suddenly popped into my Gtalk and paid me lavishing compliments about my blog and disappeared. Now I am too much of a blogger to let go of such golden motivation. So at 12.40 on a Thrusday night when I should be in bed saying good night to Indranil, I am up blogging. Oh well it is Friday tomorrow and then I get two whole days off. So that is cause enough for celebration.

Ha to start on the topic I want to talk about today. Many men I meet, educated, non chavunistic and sensitive, seem to think that women are headless chickens! Headless as in brainless. Chicken is my addition. But seriously I get rather perturbed when men say such things. And these are non vindictive men. They seem pretty frustrated by these brainless women they encounter. My friend thinks Indian women are primarily conditioned not to think. Our European sisters are aparently smarter and much more headmore (oh well for a headless, headmore is the opposite of headless!).

Painful jokes apart, what do you women think? I know we Indian women had it really bad and for ages all our self confidence had been systematically eroded away and we were socialised into not thinking about ourselves. But surely the times has changed, out there surely there are loads of Indian women who are emancipated and love themselves first and dont take shit. All my women friends are thinking beings and know what they want out of life, though they have been forced to take shit at times. But I know here I am essentially talking about a very niche group, very urban, well educated and from progressive families. But what about those women who are not fortunate enough to belong to this group? I know in my kind of work I encounter all kinds of women, but I always prefered to think that what these women face are exception rather than normal. But honestly in India exploitation of women is an unending story. Now a days SouthAsia TV have started showing Bhawandar again-- the docudrama on expploitation of women which used to be shown on Indian television long time back. Watching that makes me face a lot of uncomfortable questions and as a not so helpless woman feel rather enraged.

But essentially men do not talk about these women, they refer to women who have had oppurtunities in their lives and in spite of them still continue not having ownership of their own lives. I too have met many such women and they frustrate me too. So what actually makes a woman self confident and capable of living her life independently, rather than as beautiful creepers? Is it something that is gene specific or socialisation or culture specific????
Not meant to offend anyone. Just want to know your views.