Services Gendered...

Girls Outdo Guys in Maharashtra HSC exam

This is borne out time and again, in every exam, city after city, state after state, year after year. That girls consistently outperform boys, at every single school final examinations. (And this is what we shall see in the coming week, when the tenth standard results are declared)

And yet... a few years later :

- they will fall off the map as they 'keep house'; become the barter in the dowry stakes; become the self-sacrificing and celebrated Bharatiya Naari
- Although they may have successfully outperformed even in PCB / PCM - the science subjects - their representation in engineering and science colleges will become inversely proportional to earlier promise shown.
- Those who work at all, will begin a crazy balancing act between home and workplace.
- they will be reduced to participating in shrill debates on TV channels while male MPs punctiliously ensure there is no 'reservation' for them in parliament.
- This is when they are not supposed to be 'karva chauthing' or 'vat poornimaing' / 'haldi kumkuming' , as part of our 'culture'
- 'looking good' - fairer, more 'beautiful' as decided by society will become far more important than being good from the inside. Doing good to the world. Than learning to stand up for one's place in this planet.
- There will be those well educated, yet many women will give up a career, to 'take care of the home'. Which really means they will fret over every last mark brought home by their children. They will want to live their personal thwarted ambitions thru the already overloaded nextgen, and never stop to question the system that asks for this marks oriented education in the first place.
- If the magazines stocked in beauty parlours are any indication of level of IQ catered to, it is all about 'keeping your man happy' (and getting your pleasure out of it); ways to dish up that fancy meal, or 'how to ensure your man recognizes your need for a day out'..
(Why is it that you'll never see a truly thought provoking magazine kept on ANY beauty parlour shelf ?? And what does it say about our collective dumbing down that the most expensive and glossy 'women's magazines' are full of fluff)