– Geetha TG
A group of French feminists have demanded that the Declaration of Rights of ‘Man’ be reworded to include ‘Human Rights for Everyone.’ It has been reported in ‘The Guardian’ that
“The expression ‘rights of man’ makes women, their issues and their battles invisible and we become more and more isolated, Noé Le Blanc, from the collective, told Le Parisien. The preamble to the 1789 declaration mentions “rights of man” three times, and the words “men” or “man” are used in four of the declaration’s 17 articles.”
Of course there are people who quickly point out that ‘man’ here includes ‘woman’ too. I wonder why it is never the other way. Man is the default. Man is the norm. Man is the representative. Man subsumes every other gender there is. Quoting from the said article,
“…the term “Homme” when capitalised denotes mankind, as in everyone. The feminists retort that the capital H is rarely used when written and cannot be distinguished at all when spoken.”
Declaration of Human rights
This is not an aberration. It ties up with several such usages that we ignore for various reasons. For example, time and again I have been in a mixed gender group where there would be one person addressing everyone else as ‘guys.’ In online groups the default address would be ‘Hi guys.’ Well, the person addressing would often be a woman too. But the moment I am addressed thus, I feel I am rendered invisible. It’s like I don’t exist.
I wonder if they realize that by regressing to the default, by referring to a random person as he, they are playing into the dynamics of a privileged group. For those of you who wonder why I make a big deal out of a seemingly innocuous conversational trend, I request you to try addressing a mixed group as ‘Hi girls!’ What do you think the reaction would be? And try explaining that when you said ‘girls’ you actually meant everyone including the ‘guys.’ It is curious that people would find it to be even offensive. I am carrying it too far, do you think? Well, it wasn’t too long ago when we would merrily use terms like mankind, chairman spokesman etc. But now haven’t we made a conscious effort to modify our language to suit our humanistic sensibilities. Those changes occurred only when someone took it too far.
I find that rendering of me invisible, jarring, but when I point it out, I observe that I start by apologizing. ‘Sorry to digress or ‘Maybe I am overreacting’ or ‘ Don’t know if I can point it out’ and so on. I am now making a conscious effort to be not so apologetic. Unfortunately, in this patriarchal society which is male-centric, male-identified and male-dominated, the default gender is the male. And the male gender being the privileged group, in the dominant narrative the marginalized group is subsumed and made invisible.
Language matters. It does not stagnate. It evolves with the requirements of the time. It has to accommodate the sensibilities of the current generation. It is only by adapting to the needs of people that a language survives. We cannot say that we should wait for the day when gender equality dawns and on that day the language of people would somehow magically change. No, that’s not going to happen. Instead it is intertwined – as people become aware of gender equality, it reflects in their language and as it becomes the norm in the language, people become aware as well.
Careless language lends itself to erasure of identities. It is indeed a big deal when someone clubs me, a woman, with one of the men; when my existence does not warrant a separate identity, all my own. Particularly so when when the other way of identifying invokes guffaws and offense. Don’t you know that the greatest insult for a man is to be called a woman? When my very act of ‘being’ is termed an insult it is indeed a big deal for me and we have a long long way to go. Till then don’t ridicule us for making a mountain out of a molehill. It is only by shedding our inhibition and protesting and by braving the insults and ridicule we got where we are now.
I am fully aware that the sufferings of people who do not conform to the gender binary are even worse. This is a request on their behalf too. A person’s gender is simply what they say it is. Humanistic language also accommodates the sensitive usage of gender-neutral pronouns like ze, hir, etc., We need to be aware of such usage and respect it.
I stand in solidarity with the French feminists and hope that they succeed in their demand. It is astonishing that people don’t ‘see’ this as discrimination even after it is explained. In an ideal world ‘humans’ not ‘man’ should be the norm and in a slightly less ideal world, the replacement should have been made atleast after being pointed out. Instead what we see is outrage and ridicule directed at a perfectly reasonable demand. We hear voices saying “But should we make this a big deal? Aren’t there bigger issues?” Of course there are bigger issues. Enough to go around. Enough for each of us to invest our time and energy. We chose this. You take your pick. But the ‘ifs’ and ‘buts’ don’t stop. “If you harp on such trivial matters you won’t be taken seriously. You know, this is why feminists are seen as mean.” Well, do you realize ‘that’ is a technique to shame and silence us? When we say something hurts us, the decent thing to do would be to step back and think about it – not trivialize our feelings and not patronizingly try to assuage our feelings by saying that there is nothing to get hurt. Because it is indeed a Big Deal for us and that is precisely why we are raising our voices.
When feminists speak up, hear us out. Don’t tell us to lighten up. Don’t ask us to ignore. Don’t wonder why we are angry. Don’t ask us to look at our sisters who are having it even worse. Don’t ask us to fight for bigger causes. Don’t ask us to feel happy and be content with what we have. Instead. Just. Listen.
Gender Awareness Promoters 