Do Women Have Expiry Date

The title might surprise you. You must be wondering why I am talking about something that does not exist. But think again, isn’t it true that women are often given deadlines in their lives. For example, there is a certain age till she can wear frocks, after hitting puberty the dress code drastically changes. And why only dress code, her lifestyle, how she walks, how she talks, with whom she talks; all these things are taken under consideration as a girl grows up.In fact, in many of the work places women have strict dress code.

When a woman is young, beauty is very important to her. Since childhood, the mother restricts her from going out in the sun because she will get tanned. The beauty conscious society thinks that a young woman should get married before her beauty fades away. Now, there is another deadline for women to get married that is before 30. Although, the appropriate age that is acceptable is 25-26 but 30 is too late for a women. On the other hand, it’s never too late for a guy to get married. He can marry whenever he feels like.

Some may argue that women have limited reproductive age that is till 45-50, that’s why they should marry early. According to doctors, the risk of miscarriage increases after late thirties (after 35) and risk of genetic disorders in infant increases after 40. None of these factors are justified to tell a woman that she should get married in her 20s. It is not just about marriage. Most of the women are not even asked if they want to marry or not. As soon as they turn 22, parents start looking for suitable groom. If marriage is the inevitable fate for them, motherhood is the inevitable duty that they have to perform.

Till now I have only talked about the problems of bachelorettes. Think about the widows who are still criticized for marrying again. A divorcee is not even asked, as she has a bad reputation because of her broken marriage. I come across many matrimonial sites where a divorced man wants to marry an unmarried girl only. Here again, we come across the expiry date that a woman has. She can only be married once in her life as it was her fault that her husband died, or she could not continue her marriage.

Lest we forget that for marriage, everybody seeks for a virgin. Another factor that makes a woman no less than an object, giving her a status of being ‘used’ or ‘unused’. Women do not have labels attached to them but they have an expiry date in each and every phase of life. No matter how modern our society becomes, in 21^st century we have failed to eradicate such notions from our day to day lives.