The Present Perfect magazine’s “Women’s
Issue” is not only a good read, but also a tool to inspire many women and
convey the message of striving for gender equality. It encourages women to
stand up for their own rights always.
One of the articles I liked best
was “Driving for a change”. This short narrative is set in Saudi Arabia,
depicting the life of a lady, Zahrah, and her attempts to strive for gender
equality in male-dominated Saudi Arabia. As the illustration next to the main
body of the article depicts, Zahrah’s husband doesn’t bother much about his wife
and sick daughter. Personally, I feel this is a reflection of society’s vision –
how females are deemed inferior by males. In this narrative, Zahrah decides to
rebel for women’s rights along with several other women who protest to lift the
ban of not allowing women to drive; a step towards gender equality. Her efforts
are a message to many oppressed females in the world, inspiring and
encouraging them to strive for equality. In this magazine, a true story is also
featured about a Brazilian girl striving for equality; and it sends a similar message. Another very inspiring article is “Pioneers
in male-dominated careers”. Women have really proved females’ capabilities –
women are equally capable and talented as men.
There are also a couple of
articles in this magazine that give statistics on women’s rights. For example,
what percentage of women makes up the workforce in developed nations. Personally,
I feel that in developed nations, women’s and men’s rights have almost achieved
parity. However, gender equality is still a distant goal for developing
nations. Though women’s rights activists are doing their part in these developing
nations and women are also rebelling, more ought to be done by the governments of these countries in order
to let females enjoy equal rights as males.
There were 2 articles I did not
like, despite the fact that they were speaking the ugly truth. One of the
articles is about surrogacy in India. I felt that women are being used as a
tool to give babies to childless couples. I felt that surrogacy is a cruel
practice that just brings down women in their drive towards gender equality in
rapidly advancing India. I felt that the government should do more to give
these destitute women decent jobs so that they would not resort to surrogacy –
which is painful for the body and mind of a woman, as narrated by a fictitious lady in the
article. However, this article makes women more indignant and pushes them to
stand up for their fellow women’s rights even more fervently.
The second article is about how
females are portrayed in the media. I personally felt that females are
portrayed indecently and suggestively, and even, in some instances, mockingly.
I can’t help but wonder why is it that only women are portrayed in this manner;
why not men? This just highlights that women are deemed as mere “objects” by
the media, as seen by the suggestive manner in which females are made to dress
and pose. This shows how lowly the media deems women. Another point is that
girls as young as 4 years old go through beauty treatments so that they can
clinch the awards in beauty pageants in the future. Media’s focus is more on
the outer beauty of females, thus disregarding the rights of these young girls,
who are forced to go in for beauty treatments. Lastly, media discriminates females
against their age. Older actresses are given inferior roles in movies, despite
the fact that they could be acting veterans. I don’t think males are
discriminated that much against age, as I see older men acting in rather
major roles. This article depicts media’s perspective towards women. As a female, I
feel that the way media views females compared to males is totally unjust. This article too will make females stand up for women’s rights more
passionately.
To sum up, this magazine is really
worth a read, and I would definitely recommend other ladies to read it. I may
probably even recommend it to males, so that they too will understand that
females deserve equal rights as men and will thus treat women they know with
equality and respect. This magazine is truly inspiring as it pushes you to
stand up for justice, and makes you realise that with sufficient drives towards achieving equal rights for both genders, gender equality is a feasible aim for the future.
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