Thread by @ishadrita

Thread: Wrt the bigoted Bengali-women bashing that is happening here because of #RheaChakroborty and those after her life, here's a little something.

Honestly, in my lived experience, I've faced very little negative commentary for being Bengali. Most remarks are usually... (1/n)

...about how intelligent, beautiful, successful Bengalis are.

The first time I heard this spiel about Bengali women/women from the east knowing black magic was courtesy a Hindi professor at Stephen's who legit said this to me with a straight face in my first year. (2/n)

The next time I heard this, was years later, when my Bihari boyfriend's dur ke rishtedaar said that "Bangali ladkiya bohot chalu hoti hain". It led me to ask why being "chalu" or clever is a bad thing & also led to me question what the genesis of this stereotype is. (3/n)

While I've really not conducted a sociological study, my guess is that the stereotype stems from the largely "educated" image of the Bengali women which comes from many female reformers who worked and wrote here before the rest of the country. (4/n)

Bengal also saw many more female revolutionaries before the rest of the country did. Strong women feature in our history (eg Begum Rokeya Shekhawat, Ashapurna Devi, Matangini Hazra etc) and our traditions (eg Durga and Kali). Our women have stood up to our men... (5/n)

...who are as patriarchal as the rest of the country (don't let anyone tell you otherwise), much before women elsewhere started doing the same. Maybe this threat to the men, spearheaded by Bengali women, is what makes us "daayins" and "tantriks". (6/n)

To all my beauteous mamonis- When someone asks you if you know kaala jadoo, say no, but also remind them that that's one of the very few things that you don't know.
This is not about Bengali women. This is about independent women everywhere being hounded for who they are. (7/7)