Do you know the author, Mark Manson? One who has authored the International Bestseller The Subtle Art Of Not Giving A Fuck? If yes, great! If no, not a problem! I don’t have much to say about this particular book in this piece.
Well, at present, I am reading Mark Manson’s other book that according to him, is about hope. It’s title reads, Everything Is Fucked. The author has interestingly dissected the word Hope and has presented quite a holistic meaning of the word itself. Even that’s also not my point. But yeah, it is around this positive and hopeful word, Hope itself.
Let’s take a glance at what the author says about hope, I quote, “To generate hope in our lives, we must first feel as though we have control over our lives. We must feel as though we are following through on what we know is good and right; that we are chasing after ‘something better'”.
It’s obvious that readers view a piece of text from somewhat their own discretion and through the lens of their perspective. Right? As I am treading forward with the reading of this book, a thought is continuously whirling inside my mind. It is that, while hope is something that keeps us all going, there are sections of people who, in any case, can’t afford to lose it. These sections of people are those who are one of the most vulnerable and marginalized in our society. I’ll specifically talk about women here.
Hope is the quest for achieving an improved version of something that we have now. It could be an improved life, friends, family, or society, in general. Do we remember the Feminist movements that took place in the 1960s and 1970s? What were they all about and what they aimed to achieve? Those movements were a result of hope and aspiration that women showed, for a better and inclusive society. They wanted reproductive rights, ease from domestic violence, maternity leave, equal pay, and freedom from their suffrage, sexual harassment, sexual violence, and more. It was the grains of hope that encouraged women to lead this diverse social movement, voice their opinion, and ask for their rights.
Out of the flashback mode, we are in 2020 now. In my experience and knowledge, neither much has improved nor we have made ounces of progress as far women’s lives are concerned. Yet, we women, ask for equality, aim to shatter patriarchy, support each other, and voice our opinions. Why? Because we hope for an improved version of this world. In fact, we also believe that our hope is real even when we have the track record of ages and centuries before us and nothing revolutionary seems to have happened to date.
Women are bound with the shackles of oppression, patriarchal mindset, paternalistic control, policing from society, and largely from every breathing space of their lives. Most women even give in their lives due to these surmounting pressures, the culture of violence and abuse, and control.
Even in today’s world, women are looked down upon as a weak gender and one that needs to be infantilized, controlled and rebuked. Well, you know the drill. And combined, all these things make it even more important for us to not lose hope. Simply put, we can’t afford to. This world is still a living hell for millions of women. We can’t lose hope for making it a better place, even if we fail again.
As said by Martin Luther King Jr, “We must accept finite disappointment, but we must never lose infinite hope.”
Image credits: Crosswalk.com
Udisha Srivastav is a Freelance Content Writer with Femsay.com