“Mother's Day” is a celebration honoring the mother, motherhood, and the influence of mothers in society.
But there is a popular impression in our Indian society that is romanticizing the mother and child relationship of a social family construct. The problem with this is we are not giving the same magnitude of respect to adoptive mothers, surrogate mothers, stepmothers and foster mothers. Some people do not even consider them as mothers. Please include them as well when you think of the term mothers.
The similar social taboo structure you can see in our homes and cultures that deals with "Sumangali". The term Sumangali means "married woman" or "happily married woman" in the Tamil language. It refers to a "single girl becoming a respectable woman through marriage".
When a culture gives respect to something, it defames something else. We need to really think about what is getting defamed when something gets glorified.
An unmarried woman, divorced, single mom, or widow are not getting equal social and cultural respect. They do not even get invited for any good occasions.
You can glorify the mother or motherhood but do it without hurting the females who do not fall under this category. Break this taboo. We need to treat every woman equally and give respect regardless of their civil or marital status.
But there is a popular impression in our Indian society that is romanticizing the mother and child relationship of a social family construct. The problem with this is we are not giving the same magnitude of respect to adoptive mothers, surrogate mothers, stepmothers and foster mothers. Some people do not even consider them as mothers. Please include them as well when you think of the term mothers.
The similar social taboo structure you can see in our homes and cultures that deals with "Sumangali". The term Sumangali means "married woman" or "happily married woman" in the Tamil language. It refers to a "single girl becoming a respectable woman through marriage".
When a culture gives respect to something, it defames something else. We need to really think about what is getting defamed when something gets glorified.
An unmarried woman, divorced, single mom, or widow are not getting equal social and cultural respect. They do not even get invited for any good occasions.
You can glorify the mother or motherhood but do it without hurting the females who do not fall under this category. Break this taboo. We need to treat every woman equally and give respect regardless of their civil or marital status.
Author
This post is written by Joachin Joseph.
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