“IF I have to define myself, I have to say, ‘I am a woman’...

A man never begins by posting himself as an

individual of a certain sex: that he is a man is obvious” – Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex.

As small as the name is, as vivid issues it carries within. Gender may be confused by sex many times, but
these two are different things. Sex is biological where as gender is social. On asking to Shreshtha
Pandey a 18 years old girl what gender means to her in a sentence she stated “ Something that divides
our society”. Gender may mean different to different people . It is nearly impossible to talk about
gender without talking about some terms like Male privilege, male hegemony, gender identity and social
category etc. Our society has namely divided gender into two male and female and with them comes
gender norms and culture norms. Gender discrimination is as common as a fly in the nature. Equal rights
are often confused with feminism. The very first words of any parents to their kids are “beta” or “beti”.
This piece of writing could be neutral only if there was neutrality in nature too. Not few days ago I was in
a situation where I had to take my friend to hospital because she met with an accident and she required
stitches, there were three people a female doctor and two male compounders, what one of the
compounder said next is something I can’t take of my head ever since “ Kal ko shadi hogi toh nishan
acha lgega?” (Tomorrow you’ll get married, the scar won’t look good). I would love to talk about gender
neutrally if the compounder would have said the same thing to a boy if he was in my friend’s place.
Because the way I see it shadi toh ladka bhi karega (Even the boy would get married someday).
Everyone talks about world peace and equality when there are no equal rights given to a brother and
sister living in the same house. Psychoanalysts in particular define man as a human being and a woman
as a female. While read The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir one would come across facts and
theories one would not usually think of.