Today's Feminism is Actually Hurting Women Badly || Acharya Prashant (2021)

Acharya Prashant

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Transcript

00:00Sir, I hear a lot about feminism nowadays, women liberation movement.

00:15So what is true feminism?

00:23True feminism is really when the woman, the female, stops taking being a female as her

00:39primary identity.

00:43If you want to talk of feminism in the context of women's liberation, then this alone is

00:51liberation.

00:53As long as she is fighting for her rights as a woman, she is not liberated.

01:06She first of all needs to be liberated from the concept that she is a woman.

01:20If she continues to be a woman, then her genetic conditioning and biological impulses and physical

01:33drives would continue to rule her.

01:40And that would obviously make the achievement of a potential as a human being very difficult.

01:55What does that really mean?

01:57Because there have been just so many ideas that if you want to be liberated, then be

02:07like, be more like the man.

02:09Do you understand?

02:10So it's you moving from one place to another place, so you are given one standard and you

02:17shift from that standard to another standard.

02:20It's already bad enough that you are a woman, why do you want to make it worse by being

02:30like the man?

02:34That's no indicator of progress in any sense.

02:42If a consciousness that considers itself a woman starts considering itself a man, how

02:54is it progress in any sense?

02:57In fact, it is a double bondage, a double whammy.

03:03Now you are a woman and to top it, a man, biologically a woman, ideologically a man.

03:15Is that liberation?

03:16More conflict.

03:17That's more conflict, that's more bondage.

03:21Ultimately, when you say feminism, tell me simply, very simply, what do you want?

03:29You want the person's welfare, that's the objective and her welfare lies in her liberation

03:44from body identification.

03:46Do consider that all the bondages that come to her, entrap her, come via her own body.

04:00She is entrapped because she is the woman.

04:06Stop being the woman, no more traps, are you getting?

04:14I'm getting that conceptually, but how is that practically applicable?

04:22The woman is trapped by the man because as a woman, she yearns for safety and security.

04:33As a woman, she wants a nest and eggs and kids.

04:37Stop wanting all those things.

04:38How will a man trap you now?

04:41How will anybody enslave you now?

04:44And you want those things without knowing that those wants are hardly yours.

04:51Those are the wants arising from the female body, your cells, your DNA, your hormones.

05:03They are the ones that provoke those wants, rather invoke those wants.

05:14The more you keep identifying with your physical self, the more you will adopt those wants

05:23as your own, whereas those are the wants of the body.

05:29The moment you adopt those desires, somebody will present himself as a candidate to fulfill

05:38those desires.

05:40And the one who presents himself to fulfill those desires is carrying a hidden handcuff.

05:53You will not even realize when you have been handcuffed.

06:02Bondages are not generally forcefully imposed on anybody.

06:13Bondages are so prevalent because bondages are mostly consensual.

06:20The woman herself consents to bondage and she consents to bondage because she takes

06:33herself to be a woman.

06:35Now many people will be finding it quite absurd, they'll say, but she is a woman, is she not?

06:42Continue taking yourself as a woman and then you will only get what mother Prakriti has

06:48in store for you.

06:49And mother Prakriti does not have empowerment or liberation in store for you.

06:57She has in store for you a future circumscribed by the nest and confined to the eggs.

07:07Hardly alluring, hardly glorious.

07:13So, there's these words, they say embrace womanhood or embrace motherhood.

07:23Extremely toxic, extremely toxic.

07:26That's anti-feminism.

07:27That's anti-liberation.

07:28That's anti-liberation.

07:29If feminism is true, it would seek to liberate the woman and in that liberation lies her

07:37empowerment.

07:39So, if you talk of embracing your feminine traits and such things, that's not doing any

07:47good to you.

07:49You have to transcend them, you have to transcend them, you have to let them be.

07:55You don't have to empower them, they are already quite powerful.

07:58You don't have to embrace them, they are already quite sticky.

08:03What do you mean by embracing your own skin?

08:09It's already there, you have to transcend it.

08:14That doesn't mean that you have to peel out your skin.

08:19That merely means that you have to dis-identify.

08:23So, not give it as much importance, to make it your own life.

08:29If you will continue to be a woman and want your due rights as a woman, maybe you will

08:38get something, but those would be crumbs, peanuts, not worth much.

08:45Are you getting it?

08:52If you want, for example, what every female in every species wants, what does she want?

09:05She wants the male to be the hunter and the gatherer and the provider and that dependence

09:13will remain.

09:15At best, feminism of the kind that we usually see will succeed in enacting some legislation

09:23that will ensure that you are getting due supply of money even when you are not earning.

09:29So you are at home due to maternity or something else and the law will empower you to have

09:36some money.

09:37You will legally have some rights over the man's money.

09:42That's not the empowerment that you should want or if you are separated, then maybe legal

09:52provisions can entitle you to some alimony throughout your life or such things.

09:58That's hardly empowerment.

10:01In fact, if you are truly a feminist, then one thing you must certainly do, never be

10:11dependent on somebody's money.

10:15If there is one thing that is totally against women's empowerment, women's liberation and

10:22true feminism, it is dependence on the man's money and curiously, we know of several leading

10:33feminists who earn nothing at all.

10:39They practice their feminism thriving upon the male partner's money.

10:47What kind of feminism is this?

10:49The lady will say, you know, I am a true blue feminist.

10:54How much do you earn?

10:57No, I don't earn anything at all.

10:59If you don't earn anything at all, then you are just playing your biological role.

11:04You are confined to your biological role.

11:08How you liberate it?

11:11That could be one necessary mark of a true feminist.

11:20She would be not dependent even for a single rupee on anybody else, especially not on the

11:33male partner or male guardian, whosoever.

11:43So now, all the women who say that, you know, we want to have kids, let's say that there's

11:50a whole, who want to embrace motherhood, so you're saying, obviously, financial independence

11:59is the first goal.

12:01So financial independence and then still having kids, is that something that is, that can

12:09be counted under feminism as such?

12:12No, you see, these are not do's and don'ts.

12:16And we are not talking of prerequisites and conditions that, all right, if you are earning,

12:21then you may have kids and then your feminist tag would not be revoked, we are not talking

12:27of such things.

12:28We are talking of an inner understanding, we are talking of true identification and

12:37true dis-identification.

12:38It's not about the act of having kids, it's about asking yourself, why do I want to have

12:47kids?

12:48What within me is craving for kids?

12:51That's the question to be asked, right?

12:54And then if the answer is from the proper center, you may go ahead and have kids, who's

13:01there to stop you, provided the answer is coming from the center of realization and

13:07wisdom.

13:08If the answer is coming from a hormonal center, and you are executing that answer, God save

13:15you.

13:16Because you talked about legislation, and there's actually countries who are considering

13:24women empowerment in these terms, that earlier women were allotted maternity leaves, now

13:31the husbands will also be allotted paternity leave, so that they can take care of the kids

13:36together.

13:37There's no wisdom in this, there's just no wisdom in this.

13:46This is like equalizing foolishness.

13:52So nobody would be allowed to be less foolish than the other, right?

14:01It's only the woman, till now, that would be engaging in this kind of biological, now

14:16even the man has been condemned to engage in the same biological chakras, so it's a

14:30kind of equality.

14:31There was this fellow, it was there on his Facebook wall, he was planning for an outing

14:43and a movie this evening, and then this tonight, there is a man, but I won't go because we

14:54are having our periods, but I won't go because we are having our periods.

15:03So what we are saying is, the woman is already identified and attached to her body, now the

15:10man too is identified with the woman's body, the man is saying, I too am having my periods.

15:19So instead of dis-identification, this is double identification, this is no liberation.

15:29This is quite the opposite of what we started with, where I said the woman is being asked

15:34to rise up to the standard of the man, right now the man is being asked to reach the standard

15:39of the woman and that is being called as feminism, that you be more sensitive towards all the

15:44bodily needs that I have.

15:47There is this new cult of the more feminine man, don't you see that?

16:01The macho man is fading away.

16:09Not that the macho man was any good, it's just that the new trend is more dangerous

16:16because it is proceeding in the name of liberation.

16:30That earlier you were not allowed to be emotional, now you are allowed to be emotional even though

16:34you are a man, so now am I.

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