But the ultimate goal of all this unceasing activity is to produce the effect of untouched naturalness.” Complex networks of cultural reproduction are dedicated to this sole purpose. It requires the faithful performance of prescribed rituals over and over again throughout one’s lifetime. The maintaining of social order is rather like that. Quotation to support argument: “The whole point of nude make-up, clearly, is to spend hours painting your face in order to make it look like you had not touched it at all. The analogy caught my attention, and was a precursor to the eye-opening nature of the book where we look at our own surroundings in an ever so slightly altered manner. The analogy here, is that our social order follows similar rituals, where we reiterate and naturalize certain patriarcal actions with the eventual aim of them appearing instinctive and unrehearsed, while in all fairness we are really just solidifying the opressants of feminism in our social structure.

She draws strong social parallel to how nude makeup is essentially a bunch of techniques to make a person appear more ‘naturalistic’, over and above his or her own natural self. The author starts presenting her points with a quick look at nude makeup.

Many subtleties that I overlooked, and social norms that I accepted without questions were brought to light in a manner where I realised that their obviousness was a patriarchal construct in itself. Nivedita Menon questioned many of the fundamental beliefs I held in this direction. In my mind, my family, my school, my friends and my immediate society were an epitome of idealised existence where gender equality was an obvious assumption, not a right to fight for. When I heard, or read about gender bias, discrimination against women, social bias among other issues, I looked outside my family, my school and the immediate society for examples, never within. I held this belief that I was brought up in a modern liberal family, where there were no undue restrictions on female members and my sister and me were equal in all respects. That was the core reason behind my decision to pursue Gender Studies as a course in the first place. Afterall, I constantly identified myself as one. When I started reading Nivedita Menon’s ‘Seeing Like a Feminist’, I had a clear cut preconceived notion of what feminism is and what it means to be a feminist. “Feminism is not about that moment of final triumph, but about the gradual transformation of the social field so decisively that old markers shift forever.

Nivedita menon feminism