A couple weeks ago I saw a movie called “Pink” on Netflix and I began to think about how it tied back to our discussions in class. In this movie, three girls go out for a night of fun and encounter a group of men who invite them to their hotel for a couple drinks. The opening scene of the movie shows the three girls on a cab ride home looking horrified, and the silence that consumed the atmosphere was almost chilling. Throughout the movie the events that occurred that night are revealed in pieces. All the while the men are trying to get revenge, because one of the ladies attacked one of the them. The guy who was injured had to go to the hospital and got a bandage over his eye. He was from a well connected family and had a lot of resources, while the girls were middle class, average-working girls. The men felt embarrassed that one of them was attacked by a female, and so they set out to destroy their lives by making sure they lost their jobs, kicked out of their apartment, and shamed in public. The girls try to go to the police and reveal the men groped them and attempted to rape them the night they were all together. Because the men are so well connected the police disregards the accusations posed by the women and instead arrest one of them for attacking and injuring one of the men.

One thing that struck me about the movie at this point was how easy the men set their minds to destroy the lives of the three ladies. It was almost as if they didn’t even stop and think that maybe they were in the wrong. Another thing that struck me was that the police officer in  charge of handling the accusations from both parties was female, and yet in my eyes even she couldn’t be trusted. As the movie unfolds, it seems that everyone refuses to help the woman, and no lawyer is willing to represent them in court due to the accusations the men have told about them. A neighbor in the community, who happens to be a retired lawyer, comes out of retirement to help the ladies out. He points out in many occasions how society has let woman down, and how the word of a man with good connections and a deep pocket has more importance than that of a victimized woman.

One work that has reminded me of this is “The Rights of Woman” by Olympe de Gouges. Even though the movie is set in present day India and targets the flaws of Indian society and government, Gouges basically does the same thing by modifying the “Declaration to the Rights of Man and of the Citizen”, which was written in France in 1789. This year seems so distant yet the basic problems that arose in France at the time seem prevalent in our day and age. Gouges does a good job at pointing out that woman are completely disregarded in the previous declaration, and that they have rights just as much as men do. Gouges believes in a world where both men and woman would receive the same punishment for the same crime, without taking the sex of the criminal into account. She believes woman should be a part of the good and bad aspects of society, just like men are. Gouges also briefly advocates for other underrepresented minorities in French society such as children, the elderly, and people of other races/religions.

As I watched this movie, it was a cold reminder that woman still aren’t equal to men, no matter how much we would like to believe so. We do have a right to vote, and freedom of speech, and other constitutional rights that men have. But yet somehow we are caged in. In other societies as well as the American society, things like rape and feminine problems seem minuscule and unimportant, and are branded as taboo. Recently, and especially under our new administration, things like birth control and abortion are up in the air. There aren’t as many woman in politics as men, yet it seems like these kinds of decisions about a woman’s body are being made for her. There are still certain things woman have to fight for in society, even though we have come a long way. Gouges set a good example for woman and how they should express their need for equality, and the movie “Pink”was a good reminder that even though it’s the 21st century, we still have ways to go.