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Ridiculing Bilawal and the Culture of Misogyny | Pak Tea House
“Aur tu aur Billo Rani bhee bol rahi hai. Asif Zardari sahib, itna haram kamaia aap ne, thora sa Bilawal per lagain aur us ka technical masla theek karain. ( Now even Billo Rani is speaking. Asif Zardari, please devote some of your illegal wealth towards rectifying Bilawal’s technical problem).”“BB ka baita aaega rozgaar laega (BB’s son will come, bring employment) Question is: baita hae kahan? (Where is the son?)”
The first of the above is an excerpt from Sheikh Rasheed’s speech and the latter is one of the countless FB statuses I have seen in the past few days which refer to Bilawal and mock at his supposed lack of masculinity.Bilawal is someone whom many of the urban middle class hate and their way of showing hatred is to equate him with a female and hence with transgender community and gays. I don’t whether it humiliates him but it surely does reveal our society’s collective misogyny and homophobia.
**In our culture misogyny is deeply rooted and at times expresses itself in seemingly “humorous” forms. For example, when we want to put a guy to shame, we doubt his masculinity and try to equate him to a female or simply call him a transgender.**Masculinity has become associated with bravery, intelligence and some kind of superiority and thus when we want to appreciate some individual due to these perceived qualities, we call him a real guy. In fact this kind of mindset has become so common that at times when we want to appreciate bravery of a woman, we try equating her to a man. For example many a times, I have heard people saying that a particular woman has more “balls” than everyone else. This statement, though apparently appreciative of the woman in question, nevertheless is an outcome of the culture which equates so called better qualities like valor with masculine physical attributes.Likewise when we want to ridicule a man, the “best” way is to call him “sissy” or effeminate. Thus feminizing becomes a way to insult a man because at a collective level, misogyny reigns supreme. And this misogyny is also expressed at the political level also.Right now this is what I am observing with respect to Bilawal Bhutto.
Many, particularly from PTI, are making fun of him and calling him a lady boy, a transgender and a homosexual because of the alleged effeminacy. It shows problem at two interrelated levels. First, it is somehow or the other considered degrading for a male to resemble a woman even remotely; two if he resembles then he is a homosexual which again is some or the other considered disgusting in our collective mindset. Misogyny blends with homophobic behavior to show acute contempt for the individual whom we dislike.It is the very manner of showing contempt which is so disgusting. So what we are in essence saying is that women are second class humans and transgender individuals and gays, since they are like them are also second class. By this logic, if a male we dislike has even remotely feminine physical attributes- such as high pitched voice or delicate hands then calling him a female is our way of showing dislike.
The irony is that some even apparently educated women ( mostly PTI supporters) are themselves a part of this exercise ( as many such statuses have been shared by women also) , oblivious of the fact that eventually they are merely undermining their own gender and in the process strengthening the patriarchal social paradigm.
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When some women are a part of this so called mocking exercise, instead of raising voice on this degradation of their own gender, it is a sorry state of affair and shows that in our society certain modes of thinking have been internalized.****It is sad the way our politics has degenerated to sort of name calling which is reinforcing existing regressive practices and third class mindsets.
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And while we try to equate femininity with cowardice and try to prove that Bilawal is effeminate and hence a coward, in reality he is braver than the rest. He is talking about Aasia bibi, minorities and Malala. Do the leaders of PML (N) and PTI, even venture there? Despite his youth, he has shown a lot of maturity.One could argue on the competence of PPP’s governance, but it still remains the most progressive mainstream party.It is okay to be critical of a party and its stances but there is a line beyond which criticism is no longer criticism and ventures into irrational hatred and of the sort which is misogynous in essence.
