Boulevard of Broken dreams

1164 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Role of media in shaping society

"India kills her daughters in millions" screamed the headlines in Times of India. What should be a proclamation of joy instead are the three most dreaded words of a new mother - "It's a girl." When did our society that worshipped Goddesses turn to the woman-hating, disgusting society? Infants are killed as soon as they are born. Of those who survive pass the fetus stage, many will die before they turn six. There is a 75% more chance of a girl dying than a boy. That's the highest differential in the world.
So, why do they do this? If the cost of your daughter's wedding was your entire life's savings and maybe more, wouldn’t you think twice about having a daughter then? Would you condemn someone else if they did not want to have a daughter? A few months ago, in Western India, a teenager committed suicide. 19-yr old Priya consumed poison because she was being pestered by her in-laws for money, a lot of money. Five of her family members including her husband have been arrested. In India, this is called 'Dowry Death'. Dowry is a sum of money or gifts that a bride's family pays to the groom’s family at the wedding and it is almost always a very significant amount of money. Dowry was banned 50 years ago, but as a tradition it still very much exists. It's extensively practiced around the country. Sometimes the relatives pester the woman so much even after the wedding, that they, unable to bear the trauma, commit suicide. And sometimes they are even killed. And that ‘is’ a big enough reason for parents to wish for a boy.
In India there are 60 million females missing. That is one-fifth of the total population of USA. We would need 37 million more women, according to the last census, just to equalize the number of men and women in India. ...

... middle of paper ...

...past, our medical professionals who honor the Hippocratic oath over the allure of easy money, the Government officials who refuse to participate in corruption and establish and enforce laws that protect and value girls. Those in authority, are the ones who establish the standard of justice for ever family and society; and we as parents and grandparents are the ones who determine the generational patterns of behavior that define the future. If we are ever to see an end to this social evil of Gendercide, it is going to require all of us to think differently, to find a whole new way of thinking and educating. We need to defend equality and justice.
“Freedom cannot be achieved unless women have been emancipated from all forms of oppression… Our endeavors must be about the liberation of the woman, the emancipation of the man and the liberty of the child.”- Nelson Mandela

Show More
Related

  • Rhetorical Analysis: A Day Without Feminism

    490 Words  | 1 Pages

    It amazes me how a few decades ago can seem like a whole different world. A course of time can impact our lives more than we know it. In the article, A Day Without Feminism by Jennifer Boumgoidnei and Amy Richntds, both of these authors created this piece to inform their audience that although women have gained more rights over time, there was still more progress to be made. These authors gave many examples of how life for women had been, the obstacles they had to overcome, and the laws women had to break for equality.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of The Seven Minute Life Of Marc Lepine

    760 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the past there were many biases against women and their lack of abilities compared to men. Although the male perspective has changed over the past few centuries, there are many feminists who still fight for ...

    Read More

  • The Ethics of Sonography and Gendercide

    1531 Words  | 4 Pages

    Sex-selective abortion is the practice of terminating a pregnancy based on the predicted sex of the fetus. The selective abortion of female fetuses is most common in areas where cultural norms value male children over female children, especially in parts of Taiwan, Korea, China, and India. A 2005 study estimated that over 90 million females were "missing" from the expected population in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, China, India, Pakistan, South Korea and Taiwan alone, and suggested that sex-selective abortion plays a role in this deficit. India eliminates over half a million healthy girl fetuses annually, simply because of their gender.

    Read More

  • Social Impact Of Gendercide

    1077 Words  | 3 Pages

    The wife 's desires for a girl also can be unselfish in their eyes by saying they are protecting them from a life of poverty since they had not yet had a son who could provide their prosperity. “Dowry deaths” are also an age old tradition that is a custom for the religion. But with the heavy problem of gendercide, the government outlawed the use of a dowry. But since tradition is so heavy and rich it still happens. The families want to live up to expectations and even if it is not “required” it still looks good for a family to compensate the other in a social standing. The problem with this is that they still see females as burdens even though there is no requirement to provide a dowry. It is the age-old tradition to give a dowry that is hurting the females. The old ways need to be adapted, and the culture itself needs to understand that it is okay not to provide a dowry. This is the only way change for females can come and ensure them a success and longevity in their

    Read More

  • Life of a Sensuous Woman and A Vindication of the Rights of Woman

    1844 Words  | 4 Pages

    ...together as equal members of society. Even though the progress has been massive in developed nations, there are still parts of the world that are centuries behind when it comes to women liberation. Therefore, now it is in the hands of liberated ones to pull those who are still living under the cave of oppression and show them the light of liberation.

    Read More

  • In 2014, Women Still Are Not Treated Equally

    3310 Words  | 7 Pages

    There is a continuing debate worldwide regarding the topic of women’s rights and equality. Some have stronger opinions than others but in the long run it is shown that women have come a long way since the Seneca Falls convention in 1848 as well as the Civil Rights Movement in the 1920’s. Since the civil rights movement, women have struggled with religious freedom, equality, schooling, voting, stating their voice in government, and family life. Over the past generations dramatic social and legal changes have been pursued to pave the way for women’s acceptance today; changes such as affirmative action, reproductive rights, abortion, and the pursuit of higher education. Generations of women have come together to help build stronger ground to address women’s rights by participating in civil rights meetings, petition drives, lobbying, public speaking and non-violent resistance acts. Women have also overcome hardships such as rejection, isolation, discrimination, and unfair treatment in the workforce. In today’s society women now have more opportunities then ever before such as invol...

    Read More

  • Sunset Boulevard

    1938 Words  | 4 Pages

    Sunset Boulevard (Wilder 1950) explores the intermingling of public and private realms, puncturing the illusion of the former and unveiling the grim and often disturbing reality of the latter. By delving into the personal delusions of its characters and showing the devastation caused by disrupting those fantasies, the film provides not only a commentary on the industry of which it is a product but also a shared anxiety about the corrupting influence of external perception. Narrated by a dead man, centering on a recluse tortured by her own former stardom, and concerning a once-promising director who refuses to believe his greatest star could ever be forgotten, the work dissects a multitude of illusory folds to reveal an ultimately undesirable truth. Its fundamental conflict lies in the compartmentalization that allows the downtrodden to hope and carry on. Sunset Boulevard carefully considers the intricate honeycombs of dishonesty and deception that constitute a human life, then dissolves the barriers and watches the emotions, lies, and self-contradictions slurry together and react in often volatile and destructive ways.

    Read More

  • Violence Against Women In Canada

    1173 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the majority of early cultures and societies, women have always been considered subservient and inferior to men. Since the first wave of feminism in the 19th century, women began to revolt against those prejudicial social boundaries by branching out of the submissive scope, achieving monumental advances in their roles in civilization. However, gender inequality is still prevalent in developed countries. Women frequently fall victim to gender-based assault and violence, suffer from superficial expectations, and face discriminatory barriers in achieving leadership roles in employment and equal pay. Undoubtedly, women have gained tremendous recognition in their leaps towards equal opportunity, but to condone these discrepancies, especially

    Read More

  • Women as a Minority Group

    1272 Words  | 3 Pages

    Women have been treated unequally since the beginning of time. Just recently have things began to change for the better for women and the future of our society. The increase in women’s equality rights will take time, but some day women and men will be treated equally. This cannot happen until each of us is able to look at a person and just see another individual, not a male or a female, white or black, rich or poor… a person as just a person.

    Read More

  • Mistreatment Of Women In The Victorian Era Essay

    2196 Words  | 5 Pages

    “The day may be approaching when the whole world will recognize woman as the equal of man.” (Susan B. Anthony)

    Read More

  • Child Marriage in the Middle East

    1393 Words  | 3 Pages

    Each day, 25,000 or more children are married and become child brides: and in Yemen, over fifty two percent of girls are married before eighteen years old, and fourteen percent are married before the age of fifteen(“Laws Fail to Stop Child Marriage”), which is the highest rates of child marriages in the world. In Iraq, however, eleven percent of girls are married before eighteen (“Child Marriage: Legalized Rape?”) while a new law in Iraq could lead to girls as young as nine years old getting married and having to submit to sex whenever her husband wants. (Aly)Sometimes, girls as young as ten would be forced to marry men up to four or five times their age(Birkett) and a husband can have sex with his wife regardless of consent(“Humanitarian News and Analysis”). Children ten to fourteen are five times more likely to die during childbirth than women in early twenties because their bodies aren’t physically equipped for childbirth.(Baz) “Married underage girls are subjected to physical and psychological suffering”(“Humanitarian News and Analysis”). This is disturbing because while in India, the percent of arranged marriages is 90% of all marriages in India, almost all being younger than eighteen.(Gorney and Sinclair). By the end of the decade an estimated 142 million girls will be married before eighteen years old, while one in three girls in the world are married before eighteen, while one in nine are married before fifteen. 400 million women in the Middle East between twenty and forty nine were married before eighteen. (Al-Ansi) These numbers shock people in America, but in the Middle East, arranged marriage and pre pubescent marriage is nothing to blink an eye about. This leads to the conclusion that even though Islam constitutes ma...

    Read More

  • Women Deserve the Same Rights as Men

    1285 Words  | 3 Pages

    From the beginning of time, females have played a powerful role in the shaping of this world. They have stood by idly and watched as this country moved on without them, and yet they have demanded equal rights as the nation rolls along. Through the years the common belief has been that women could not perform as well as men in anything, but over the years that belief has been proven wrong time and time again. So as time marches on, women have clawed and fought their way up the ladder to gain much needed equal respect from the opposite sex. However, after many years of pain and suffering, the battle for equal rights has not yet been won. Since women have fought for a long time and proven their importance in society, they deserve the same rights as men.

    Read More

  • Feminist Political Ideology

    1237 Words  | 3 Pages

    Throughout history, women have remained subordinate to men. Subjected to the patriarchal system that favored male perspectives, women struggled against having considerably less freedom, rights, and having the burdens society placed on them that had been so ingrained the culture. This is the standpoint the feminists took, and for almost 160 years they have been challenging the “unjust distribution of power in all human relations” starting with the struggle for equality between men and women, and linking that to “struggles for social, racial, political, environmental, and economic justice”(Besel 530 and 531). Feminism, as a complex movement with many different branches, has and will continue to be incredibly influential in changing lives.

    Read More

  • The Importance Of Gender Equality

    1304 Words  | 3 Pages

    As we reflect on Women’s History Month, it is important to realize that many courageous women (and a few men) have made vital changes for women in almost every aspect of life. They have challenged the status quo by bringing attention to gender inequality in the workplace, education, and sexual norms. Society is now aware of rape and sexual assault, sexual harassment, and domestic violence that at one time oppressed women. For gender inequality to continue to be reduced, it is essential that a strong women’s movement continue to remind us of the sexism that still exists in our society today. The more that society is educated about gender inequality, the better equipped the family structure will be to address the bias of

    Read More

  • An Analysis Of Mariama Bâ's So Long A Letter

    1496 Words  | 3 Pages

    Throughout history, there have been constant power struggles between men and women, placing the male population at a higher position than the female. Therefore, in this patriarchal system women have always been discriminated against simply due to the fact that they are women. Their rights to vote, to be educated and essentially being treated equally with men was taken away from them and they were viewed as weak members of society whose successes depend on men. However, this has not prevented them from fighting for what they believe in and the rights they are entitled to. On the contrary, it has motivated them to try even harder and gain these basic societal rights through determination and unity.

    Read More

More about Boulevard of Broken dreams

Open Document