WHO IS THE MODERN MAN?
WHO IS THE MODERN MAN?
Hardly as I start to write this blog, a woman who has already spent half her life in a patriarchal society, guided by its rules and dictums and also finding an extension of such a mindset in the present crop of co-workers, along with the many more years of childhood I spent reading, or rather devouring books for pleasure, I can with certainty tell one fact – that even after desperate, consorted, or even diligent efforts I have not been able to undrench myself from the fishy smell of entrenched patriarchy that still reeks from me, within my small remarks or certain outlooks that have probably been entrenched within me despite my best intentions. Probably, as Helena Cixous had once said, in order to dismantle patriarchy, a new language needs to be formed. Cixous, a French national, knew that French was a gendered language, with objects being either masculinized or feminized accordingly – a trait which English does not have at all. One can almost with certain authority say that English, as a language, is gender-neutral. But the question still looms – who is the modern man? Or more so, what should he be constituted of?
To be very honest, I don’t know. Small markers or superficial observations can be made. But I believe it is still a journey that needs to be undertaken in the dark abyss of a jungle, for patriarchy, like feminism, is a fluid and evolving idea with no fixed rules or boundaries, much like an electromagnetic field. Hence, the findings too of the question need to be a dynamic one. To begin the journey, I would like to first invest my attention in two figures – disparate as though they may seem, I find them necessary to my argument. First is the Victorian novelist Thomas Hardy. Hardy, amongst others, started the idea of the New Woman. Although fiercely independent, self-asserting female characters can be found in the works of Austen, the Brontë sisters, or even George Eliot, in Hardy's case, it was men writing women. Hardy invested in characters like Tess or Sue, granting them agency that did not necessarily conform to patriarchal parameters. Although one can argue what became of them in the end, for me, the interpretation lies in the way the Icarus myth has been understood since the Renaissance period – they all tried, and in it lies their glory. The second reference I would like to discuss is Zoya Akhtar writing the character of Sunny Gill, played by her brother Farhan Akhtar, in the movie Dil Dhadakne Do. The importance of this character, very similar to that of Hardy, is woman writing man. Through Sunny, we see a figure who questions the subtle, silent manifestations of patriarchy in our society. His comment to Ayesha’s (played by Priyanka Chopra) husband Manav (played by Rahul Bose), “Aur tum kon hote ho Ayesho ko allow karne ki liya?” lies the shattering stone towards normalized patriarchal comments. Zoya would later, in a BTS video, add that in order to change society, we cannot do so with women alone; we also need new men to participate and help the process.
What I am hinting at in this blog is the idea that the journey toward the new man needs to begin from the very start of a child’s life. Much like learning the alphabet or the (a + b)² formula, it must be taught, memorized, and internalized. The idea of consent is something that needs to be normalized and made as imperative as the practice of washing one's hands before eating. The journey seems daunting, and the result is still unknown, but the steps are imminent.
Dr. Amrita
Assistant Professor
Techno India University, West Bengal
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