Women do not have easy when it comes to making a mark in their chosen profession, given wage gap and gender bias which ensures they rarely ever get taken seriously. Does that mean however that giving her gender priority over her talent and skill is fair? How come we never use the term ‘male CEO’ but when it’s a woman at that position mentioning her gender becomes imperative?
‘Blush’ is raising exactly this question with their new ‘Kaam Se Matlab Rakh’ campaign and their latest video features ‘Kodaikanal Won’t’ fame rapper Sofia Ashraf. Ashraf talks about how when she hit the stage in 2008 she was rapping about her identity as a hijaabi and flinched right out of it when people started labelling her as the ‘burkha rapper’. As luck would have it soon after everyone chose to instead label her a ‘female rapper’ or ‘rapper chick’ which make her feel guilty due to gender taking precedence over her craft.
Women work hard and so do men. Then, why must we prefix a woman’s skill and hardwork with her gender and make it seem like her achievement is big simply due to her gender? This is a question that’s not asked very often but it’s high time we do now, because nothing can ever be expected to change unless it is questioned. Check out flair bartender Ami Shroff do exactly this while blowing your mind with her skills at the same time.
We can all relate to how irritating and dismissive of one’s hard work it is when everyone thinks profession must be prefixed with gender. By their series of videos, ‘Blush’ is trying to break this practice and Ashraf’s video is one in the series. From being fun to taking on societal issues, Ashraf’s rap has every component one needs to steal the limelight without the gender needing a mention. So, the next time you prefix ‘female’ or ‘woman’ ahead of a CEO, cab driver or doctor just refrain.
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