Words are tricky. The way we refer to somebody often reflects the deep-rooted bias in our psyche — we are always not aware of and sometimes we don’t care even if we are. Two triumphs in a day at the Rio Olympics for a country where majority of us want to see our athletes as world beaters, but don’t want to see our children play for the fear of the Sun and unemployment, came as a spell of rain on a parched land today.
That the triumphs were caused by females quadrupled the joy for many of us as we took to the social media to underline a pure sporting story with our own biases that come out more often in moments of elation. We celebrated the extraordinary performances of PV Sindhu in Badminton semifinal and Haryana girl Sakshi Malik’s wrestling bronze at the Rio Olympics as victory of the “desh ki beti” who not just brings dowry but also medals –gold, silver and bronze.
In an age where we often vow to empower the “weaker sex”, we fail to appreciate how our choice of words tricks us back to the status quo. Triumphs of Sindhu and Sakshi provided one such opportunity when we exposed our national obsession with the sexes. We did it with elan.
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Have we ever wondered why a girl’s victory at any sporting event necessarily be called a victory of the “desh ki beti”? Have we ever wondered why can’t it just be victory of an athlete, just like any other boy? Have we ever wondered why we never remember this “beti” when she plays around in oblivion and yet often return with medals, while we crowd the stadiums to watch the gods of cricket perform their divine acts? Have we ever wondered why we need “beta” or “beti” and not just children?
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The difference we create and live with in the family spreads all around like a virus – dead yet deadly. Unless we start praising all athletes as one and enjoy sports as sports, but not as an opportunity to heal bruised sense of patriotism, the condition of sports cannot improve. Until we stop seeing or referring to our champions through the prism of sexes, we can’t succeed in letting them become inspirations for all women across the country. For there is no “weaker sex”. Weaker is the word “weak” itself.