She is daring a change!

She is my angel. She is my star. She is daring a change.

Three years ago, when she was six, Sia challenged a mother who asked her son to stop crying like girls. Sia had retorted point blank to the mother, that girls do not cry.

This time, my warrior princess took offence to a perfectly simple question in one of her coursebooks - 'What is the importance of fossil fuels to man?'

I have to concede, by my own conditioning to a male dominated linguistic norm, which I certainly wish I could change, I did not at first understand her question. She asked me a second time and then a third time. The thought she had in her mind, did not cross my mind.

When she asked a fourth time, and, a little frustrated, 'Why are fossil fuels NOT important to women?' I have to admit, I was embarrassed. For one, I don’t remember asking such questions when I was a student, two, It took me time to grasp her question. After I extracted myself out of the stillness, I said two things to her - It should've been Human Beings and that there are anomalies peppered across all languages and that is something that we need to correct.

But Sia's question brings forth a BIGGER question -

Should we accept language, norms, practices, the way they are, and expect women to emerge victorious against those norms, because we know they are stronger?

Or

Should we go back to elementary education and all the way to the popular culture and make amends, because, our language, our texts, and very often the popular culture portrays women as the one needing help, the ones in distress, or the ones sacrificing?

Why do we always have a Knight in the Shining armor for a damsel in distress? There are no eulogies for Knightesses, who save dukes in distress?

I wonder, a bit worriedly albeit, how often is Sia exposed to text, conversational norms, that cultivate a belief that men are more prominent in societal structure than women and that, that is okay.

What I'm certain of is that I would continue to cultivate in her the value of courage to ask tough questions, challenge status quo and dare a change.

Daring a change she is!