I had to overcome a lot of resistance to start blogging my thoughts, especially on a very sensitive and controversy/ hatred prone topic like sexism. This is because it is very easy for others to resurface my past mistakes where I had been sexist, racist, homophobic or casteist which unfortunately occurred due to my naïve and poorer understanding of the world and hence, claim that I am being hypocritical. In other words, I would be ‘cancelled’.
It is for this very reason that I am sceptical of sharing my Medium page to a lot more people. By writing these articles, I am, to some degree, making myself vulnerable. These articles only represent one of the many dimensions of my personality. However, it is very easy for a reader to form opinions about my character just based on a bunch of sentences. I am no stranger to this bias. Yet, I decided to let go of these fears because my desire to vent out my pent up frustration was taking precedence.
It wore me out to talk about sexism to people I know all the time. Thoughts on sexism occupy my mind almost all the time. I consume a lot of media pertaining to it. I realized that I need to get these thoughts and opinions out of my system for my own good. I am glad that my past experiences have shaped me to where I am today, for the better.
While there is no fixed time stamp to indicate my growth and un-learning, I am truly happy that in the last one to one-and-half year, I have shed a lot of my internal biases that I grew up with. I was fortunate that this learning arc occurred due to the numerous interactions I have had with people from different backgrounds and ultimately has led me to become a broad-minded person compared to my past self (in my humble opinion). It has taught me that letting go of past toxic beliefs and ideologies that one grew with is important to embrace new ones.
This essentially implies that I am bound to make mistakes unintentionally in this journey of learning and un-learning and my current views might be completely incorrect. However, I am willing to accept them and change for the better. It could very well result in editing several articles, and in the worst case, taking down all my posts in the future for these reasons.
My disclaimer to you, as a reader, is, I might end up making tons and tons of errors in this process. I ask for your forgiveness and compassion during such times when I make these blunders.
Edit 1 (13/01/2021):- A lot of my posts are going to be about my anecdotes in which I encountered sexism. It would involve my friends, family members and so many people. My intention is not to vilify them or shame them. Think of these anecdotes as case studies that are being analysed and read my analysis objectively. You may comment or ping me your views on these topics or share your experiences. You may apply or ponder over these points when similar situations are presented to you.
