She pervades poetry from cover to cover; she is all but absent from history

The Title is a quote by Virgina Woolf from her book “A room of one’s own”.

Being a 21 year old middle class feminist in a modern society is tricky to navigate. There are multiple situations directly pertaining to female oppression that I am dissatisfied about, but in none of them am I a victim. Mostly just a listener, empathizer, spectator. And the subtleties of patriarchal attitudes that are closest to me are too subtle to effectively articulate or fix; they are the side effects of a system that has evolved into its current status. A complex system fed by religion, politics, beliefs, family structures and so much more where any and every unfair situation can be traced back to multiple reasons and histories; where multiple patterns of beliefs and experiences come together to shape an action. The more you think about it, the more you realize there is never one person to blame, never one reason and never a direct solution. So you read and see and listen and try to find ways to channelize this angst within you wisely and sensitively.  

That is where representation comes in the picture. Bringing women, their stories, their buried pasts into the limelight. We do not have the power to change histories or shift systemic beliefs into ethical and more open ways of thinking immediately and suddenly. What we can do, is play a role in speeding up this shift to a world that is fairer to its people. I want to bring out these women and I want the world to relook at the past through their lens. The way we see and read our history goes a long way in determining how we navigate our present. How do we teach children today to see the past? So many things happened in history, but what we decide to pick and choose and talk about and expose, matters. It matters because it reflects what a society considers important. The lens through which you understand your past and the image that you build of a past story determines your values of the present and defines what you end up writing for the future. Closing the representation gap that exists in the world today then, becomes not an exercise in documentation and a mere stunt to bridge a gender gap. It is an attempt to relook at what stories we tell from history, what are our priorities and what are we acknowledging. Is it  always the mighty leaders who led countries into wars or those hidden writers and artists who fuelled a wave of change in their own way. Or people who just lived honest lives and sustained love and kindness that kept us thriving. I don’t think I have the right to preach about how and why everyone should be a feminist, or convince people to do no wrong and think openly; what credibility do I assume that caters to multiple contexts, and would make people believe in my judgements? How do I contribute significantly to the cause of gender fairness while being sensitive to all the different experiences that so many of the oppressed genders have had? That is when I turn to bridging the representation gap. 

History has power. Archives have power. Honest stories have power. I want to bring these to the limelight, and find a way to place myself as a 21 year old middle class feminist in a modern society who cares about the causes she believes in, and if I may say so, pacify my own selfish reason to find a solution to face this angst inside me.

– Penned October 2022