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How should India raise its daughters? || Acharya Prashant, with MMMUT (2023)
16.7K views
2 years ago
Women Empowerment
Gender Conditioning
Patriarchy
Body-Centricity
Liberation
Parenting
Femininity
Consciousness
Description

Acharya Prashant explains that for daughters to reach their full potential, parents, society, and teachers must largely forget that the child is a girl. He argues that as long as one is consciously "raising a daughter," one will produce a "woman" who is a captive to her own identity, which prevents liberation, much like a man is captive to his physical identity. The speaker states that the differences between genders are minor and are exaggerated by society out of ignorance and in the pursuit of pleasure. This exaggeration creates a "hyper-man" and a "hyper-woman." He questions the societal norms that dictate different toys, clothes, and hairstyles for girls. He points out that even garments for a four-year-old girl are more expensive than for a boy, which sends the message that her worth lies in her body and appearance. This distinction is made despite young boys and girls being physically almost identical. This conditioning, often perpetuated by mothers introducing things like lip gloss, is described as a violent act that makes the girl body-centric. This focus on the body, he says, plays havoc with consciousness, turning the body into a toy or a weapon while the mind becomes numb, leading to the caricature of the "dumb blonde." This flawed idea of womanhood, originating from a man-dominated society, has poisoned the consciousness of both genders, and women themselves have often imbibed this male-centric concept of femininity. The speaker emphasizes that the fundamental identity and urge for liberation are the same for all individuals. A woman is not born merely to give birth or to be a toy for a man; she is consciousness. Her purpose is to learn, explore, and grow, and her primary existential need is for liberation. He concludes by urging that this destructive conditioning must end, and the girls of today should be the ones to stop it.