Indian Writing

Here’s the Daily Mail reporting on the ‘ill’ effects of feminism:

A study in Sweden, arguably one of the most egalitarian countries in the world, discovered that men and women who are equal are more likely to suffer illness or disability.

Those who earn the same are also more likely to become unwell or suffer a disability.

As for women, their health “could be damaged by greater opportunities for risky behaviour as a result of increased income combined with the stress of longer working hours.”

Therefore?

Sweden may have reached a critical point where further one- sided expansion by women into traditionally male roles, spheres and activities will not lead to positive health effects unless men also significantly alter their behaviour.

Inequality, of course, must be good for everyone’s health.

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Zoe Williams has a response:

The argument that feminism has undermined masculinity is strange since it suggests that, in order to show strength, men must see weakness manifested all about them; no matter if that weakness is faked or forced or cajoled. It’s a bit like Henry VIII demanding incredibly bad tennis from all his tennis chums. It might have made him feel better, but he’s not going to get any better at tennis, is he? In this ideological portrait, men cannot handle challenge, do not seek excellence and need to be indulged through lying. It interests, but doesn’t surprise me, that the people who most keenly hate women also seem to hate men. As a feminist, might I say that we don’t hate men. We believe all humanity to be as capable of greatness as the generosity of its nature and scope of its imagination will allow…

He doesn’t want to be “too sexist” about it and he knows he’s being “crass” in asking a group of professional journalists
(who happen to be women) about their choice of attire, but… Shashi Tharoor appeals to the women of India “to save the sari from a sorry fate.”

On recent visits home to India I have begun to notice fewer and fewer saris in our public places, and practically none in the workplace. The salwar kameez, the trouser and even the Western dress-suit have begun to supplant it everywhere. And this is not just a northern phenomenon, the result of the increasing dominance of our culture by Punjabi-ised folk who think nothing of giving masculine names to their daughters.

Emma has a response here.

Also: Here’s Tharoor’s NYT op-ed on the Americans and cricket. (via Siddhartha of Sepia Mutiny)