Hot Wheels V/S Barbie

I am a proud biology student, and my biology class has a MEGA, WHOPPING, GARGANTUAN class strength of 2! And these supercalifragilisticexpialidocious students are girls. ‘Bio students, then they’re definitely going to be girls.’ That would have certainly been your first thought too! But if I talk about a big-shot neurosurgeon - most of us are instinctively going to presume that he is a man, a tall, hefty male who can cure your brain tumor by simply looking at you.

We can’t really put anyone to blame here. This system has been with us since Day 1: it grew with us and within us, and got entwined in our tiny little brainboxes. From the beginning, spatial awareness toys like ‘Lego’ and ‘Hot Wheels’ have been marketed to boys and empathy-based toys like ‘Barbies’ and ‘Dollhouses’ go to the girls. This doesn’t mean that we entirely stop giving Barbies to girls and cars to boys.

The majority still prefers it that way. If someone would’ve attempted to take kid Prisha’s Barbie doll away from her, she would’ve definitely strangled them with bare Barbie hands. Yet, somewhere, she was also always a teeny bit jealous of her brother getting the coolest, craziest, most exhilarating race tracks and transformers all the time. So now the question arises, what should kids like Prisha do? They love their Barbies, but also want to race a 1969 Pink Rear-Loading Beach Bomb or a Bone Shaker (for those of you who don’t know these are Hotwheels) on the twisty orange track. Do they fall prey to the cognitive comfort zones created by the system?

So what to do now? Kid Prisha’s problem becomes adult Prisha’s problem too! And let’s not just limit this complication to the ladies. Somewhere, some XY-chromosomed Paresh would also be subjected to the same hitch. Is blaming the system going to reshape the system? The only thing one can do here is go after what they truly desire and strive to achieve it. A prime example of such a system reshaper lives right with us, our very own Bhakti Didi!

During her Vedanta course, Didi was the only female in her batch. The only lady, amidst 17 men. She did it. She did her part in refusing to let the system change her future. And her story urges us to contribute in redefining it.

Pitifully, yes. This ‘system’ continues to affect subjects like teens and even perpetuates to adults deciding on jobs. Research shows that when a large number of women enter a field, the average pay tends to stagnate or drop. Disconcertingly, when a male enters such a field, he often gets promoted to management roles faster than his female co-workers. This brings us to the Pollution Theory. Sociologists believe that the presence of a marginalized group ‘pollutes’ the prestige of the domain for the dominant group, prompting ‘men’ the ‘dominant group’ to split away from it, merely to preserve their social standing.

Ideally no field should just have Shiva or Shakti. A surgeon needs the technical precision of Shiva and the healing nature of Shakti. A software developer needs the logical nature of Shiva and the user-centric approach of Shakti. Gender bias forces people to suppress the other half of their nature. A society where men are encouraged to embrace their Shakti and women are empowered to express their Shiva is a society that operates at utmost proficiency.

Women’s professional skills are often dismissed as natural traits whilst that of men are considered as expert specialization. The most fitting example would be that of a chef, where at times gender eclipses talent, leading to massive pay gaps.

This brings us back to the system. The extremely misconstrued and misconceived system. Its original essence has been diluted through centuries of faulty interpretation. We come from a heritage so vast, philosophies so profound, culture which venerates Shiva-Shakti … The Ardhnarishwar. The entire concept of Ardhnarishwar is based on the interweaving of both masculine and feminine energies. Shiva represents consciousness (structure and logic), while Shakti represents energy (creativity and care).

So, instead of baselessly arguing that women should also do every single job, one should consider the biological sciences that once built this occupational framework. While equal rights and equal wages are necessary, it is crucial to understand the necessity for certain gender based divisions in specific fields, based on the genders’ specializations and limitations. Some fields require a predominant Shiva energy, while others thrive in the force of Shakti.

The right career trajectory is adhering to these biological predispositions while parallely prompting individuals to look beyond senseless restrictions, to embrace their Shiva-Shakti and to chase even their most ‘implausible’ desires - be it Barbies or Hot Wheels.