Female Fatale - Subhrashis

Female Fatale. Sketch By Subhrashis Adhikari

Since antiquity, women had silently left their mark on the world, and at times changed it. Not many are aware that a Chinese empress named Xilingshi invented sericulture that made China a world power; the first known author in the world was a lady named En Hedu’anna; there was an entire kingdom in Northern India, called ‘Strirajya’ that was ruled only by women; and the world’s first computer programmer, Ada, was a girl. Stone-age paintings preserved in Kashmir depict women hunting together with men. The first god human beings worshiped was the Great Mother. We can still hear the echoes of the beats in which these free women danced, when we see the cave paintings in Bhimbetka. That changed with advent of “civilization”. In men’s writings of medieval age women were carnal and lustful beings while men were spiritual. Aristotle believed that man is by nature superior to the female and so the man should rule and the woman should be ruled. Thomas Aquinas dismissed women as ‘defective and misbegotten’. According to the laws of Manu ‘Women, Sudra, dog and crow embody untruth, sin and darkness’. In the Judao-Christian version Eve is the cause of all human misery. In fact, the first woman created by god was not Eve, but Lilith. Lilith dared to be independent and challenged Adam’s superiority. She was forced to turn evil for the “horrendous crime” of claiming equality. Even in the developed nations of our modern world the male-female ratio of corporate officers is heavily skewed towards men. In India nine-thousand brides are murdered every year because their marriage dowries are considered inadequate. History shows the hypocrisy of our society that downgrades that part of it without which it would not exist.

Negrito race of Andaman Islands. Sketch by Subhrashis Adhikari

Humans lived as hunters and gatherers for thousands of years. Even today there are some isolated tribes that lives like our ancestors. The Negrito race of Andaman is one such race that has remained largely unchanged since the great coastal migration that happened 70,000 years ago. They are the last of the people who still live like the firsts. Their idea of marriage and sex is much more fluid than ours. Divorces and widow marriages are common. Premarital sex is neither uncommon nor unsocial. There are customs that still exist among various matriarchal tribes where young men and women dance together in the evenings as past time. It helps them choose the most eligible mate, which does not necessarily end up in marriage. What is more intriguing is that both men and women can have multiple partners at the same time, just like our distant relative bonobos. Since no one knows who the father is, this ensured that the children are protected and groomed by the entire tribe. However, something very basic changed with agriculture – possession. Hunters and gatherers did not possess anything of real value, apart from some stone tools and clothes, which were easily replaceable. Agriculture ensured that you have more food than you need for a day. For the first time, you could store something of immense value for the future and the wealthy tribes needed to protect their newfound wealth. Men, owing to their better fighting skills, became the protector and thus the possessor of the same. This marks the beginning of gender inequality. Whatever we possess we want to pass them to our children after we die. Our genes wanted to be sure that the advantage of survival was not lost down the line. Men went to extremes in order to ensure that their wife only bore their child, to whom the wealth would go. While men continued to be polygamous, most societies ensured that women became monogamous. In some places female body was fully covered to protect them from gaze of males, others mutilated the external female genitalia to decrease the libido to ensure women’s faithfulness. Compare this to the exaggerated sexual parts in the sculptures of mother goddess of pre-historic era. Women were forced to sacrifice their pleasure to protect men’s wealth. Matriarchy are preferred in stable and peaceful societies while patriarchy is common in societies where endemic warfare is frequent and resources are scarce, or where invading patrilineal tribes have conquered local populations. The Kurgan tribes of Pontic Steppe were aggressive and loved warfare. Their natural tendency was to become patriarchal. Eurasia probably got its patriarchy from them when they spread across Europe and Asia. From childhood such societies brainwashed women to believe that sex was bad. A ‘good’ woman was defined as one who had the right to love but not lust. In medieval Europe a women with libido could be labeled a witch and burnt to ashes. Female libido was considered a disease and doctors recommended surgical removal of clitoris to prevent women from such “fatal disease”.

Some blame the beauty of women that they say have created and destroyed many empires. The attraction is so fatal that there are tribes in Cameroon where mothers iron the breasts of young girls so that they are not large enough to gain unnecessary attention. In Apatani tribes, the nose of women were perched to make them look less attractive. Some places in India Dalit women were barred from covering their upper body. Taxes were collected from Dalit women if they wanted to cover their bosom. The amount of tax was proportional to the size of their breast. A Dalit woman from Travancore, named Nangeli, protested against the brutal system in nineteenth century. Instead of paying tax she cut her breasts and offered it to the tax collector. She died the same day due to excessive blood loss. Her sacrifice led to abolishment of breast-tax in Travancore. Her place of birth in now called Mulachiparambu – the land of the breasted women. Such protests are happening even today around the globe. In Iran few women dared to open their hijab to protest against the government. SlutWalk, that started after a police officer in Canada suggested women to avoid dressing like sluts as precaution against sexual assault, spread across the globe. The irony of our society is that in some places women have to revolt in order to cover their bodies, while in other places they have to revolt in order to uncover. On a closer look there is no irony as both protests aren’t different. The protest are not about what dress to wear or not to wear, rather it is about having the choice to wear what one likes. Equality is not about being same, but rather about having equal opportunities.

Apatani or Tanw tribe of Ziro Valley, Arunachal Pradesh, India. The women were so pretty they used to get abducted by neighbouring men. The nose plugs were inserted in the young girls to make them appear less attractive.

Recent studies are showing that women are better than men at surviving. Women legs are supposed to be 5.8% stronger than men, and they are way ahead of men in terms of their immune system. XX chromosome makes women much healthier because if there is a defect in one X chromosome, there is a backup. Men on the other hand no such advantage. Defect in one chromosome will lead to disease more frequently in men. Emotionally as well women are much better at dealing with trauma, heart disease or any other stress. History has shown that women can be good warriors too. Razia Sultana became the only woman monarch to have ever ruled Delhi. The Gond queen Durgavati ruled for fifteen years, before she lost her life in a battle with the Mughals. ‘A’ishah, widow of Muhammad, rebelled against the caliph ‘Ali in the Battle of the Camel at Basra. In 1429, Joan of Arc, supported by Queen Yolande, began her military and religious campaign against the English. In 1553 Mary Tudor became queen of England. Her persecution of Protestants earned her the name Bloody Mary. Elizabeth I, half-sister of Mary Tudor, became queen of England five years later. It is the perception that chains humanity, and it is the perception that can set them free. Modern world needs the story of equality and diversity to be imbibed into our culture. Young minds needs to be groomed for empathy and compassion. Cultural interactions help individuals become open-minded. Diversity provides different perspective that increase creativity and innovation. L’Oréal’s formula of DIVERSITY + INCLUSION = INNOVATION & SUCCESS turned them into a cosmetics giant. Diversity is the key to surviving in the modern world, not just for female fatale but also for all of us. As mothers they raise families, as lovers they give meaning to life, as daughters they take care of their parents, and as women they constantly heal the human race. But that is not their only identity. They are good and bad, they are black and white, they are fat and thin, they are also leaders, professionals, sports women, and above all, they are themselves, and not what the society wants them to be. A society in which women are free is also a liberal society in which men are happier.

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