Women Against Women?

As if we didn't have enough to deal with from period cramps to the patriarchy, women are now required to hold their own against fellow females,because no force in the universe is strong enough to defeat the agony of being backstabbed by your own kind.

Sorry,Captain Marvel.I don't think you can fix this one.

Have you ever felt humiliation flush through your body? A rush of blood to your face,reddening skin,crippling anxiety shooting through your veins.People are looking now,what do they see?What is it about me that made them behave so crudely?Does everyone see it that way?Is something wrong with the way I dress or the way I am?You can feel it,your face heating up as eyes fall on you,the burn of helplessness because you're all alone,and the poisonous anticipation,of whether or not they'll come back for more.The whispers.The new gazes they've invited to look at you and judge,to assume,to degrade.

If it sounds familiar,I am truly sorry for the way the world has treated you.If it isn't,then please,for the sake of compassion,try putting these shoes on.They're not comfortable, at all.

Last night,a few of my friends put up stories on Instagram about this middle aged woman in Delhi who was chastising a younger woman for wearing a short dress.

Chastising? No,sorry,I meant downright cursing.

'You deserve to be raped because you're wearing short clothes. ' is what she said.She even went the whole mile,calling on the men in the store to go ahead and rape that girl and her friends who were sticking up for her,because apparently,a short dress is an invitation to sexual harassment.

Woman,it's just a dress. Not a statement.

Now I don't know how much of it is true,how much is blown out of proportion,but people really, really need to sit back and take some tranquilizers because one: women really don't need hate from other women when we have a whole battle to win against oppressive societal regulations already.Two,nobody,and I repeat nobody is allowed to or has the right to judge,comment on,or act on another person's body just because they think they're right.Entitlement is the biggest turn off of the 21st century,and I hope people are catching onto that.

The problem is with the mentality and eyes of the abuser,not with the clothes of the victim.And to think,you're going to be stabbed in the back with the bluntest of knives by one of your own.

But it doesn't end there.In their anger,the victimised girls resorted to body shaming the crazy lady,spreading her identity on social media, encouraging internet users to bombard her Facebook profile with rude,vile comments and lots of hate, and basically just making her life a living hell.

No.No,that's not how you do it.You don't harm your own.You don't throw them under the bus.Yes,she needs to be taught a lesson but not by ruining her entire life! Why are women going against women like this?Where is all this hate coming from, what's dividing us?A uterus?Male chauvinists?Age old primitive ideals and anti-progressive rules?

As if we didn't have enough evils to fightfight against. As if life wasn't hard as it is.As if our choicesweren't already limited,our thoughts suppressed,our dreams shattered.

This isn't humanity.We can't even be called humans anymore,we're a disgrace. What happened to love and compassion?Where did all those stories I grew up with preaching 'love conquers all' go?What happened to supporting and wishing well?

Where did all this poison come from?I don't know.All I do know is that it hurts to see it,to feel it and hear it,barbed words of hate piercing your skin,the agony only a hundred times amplified for it comes from the mouths of people you thought had your back.

Women shouldn't be going against women in times like this where we need each other the most.So even if this is the kind of world we live in now,here's a promise to my fellow sisters,that I've got your back.

We'll get through it all. Whatever it takes.