“One is not born, but rather
becomes, a woman.”
–Simone de Beauvoir,
The Second Sex – 1949.
Time has proven to us that we are all the products of our society and its expectations towards us. Society frames the qualities of a ‘good’ woman in one picture and expects all of us to fit in it. While the modern era nurtures the talents of women, in most societies their struggle to escape stereotypes remains futile. Feminist movements did, through the course of time, give women the right to vote, but even today women have not been completely liberated from being referred to as lowly, second-grade citizens. In our country, a woman with an ambition is considered a deviant. She’s seen as a folk devil and is labeled as a source of moral panic in the society. She usually falls victim to male ego and ends up in a fate like Qandeel Baloch’s. Qandeel’s death left a message to all the women in our country, that a man can get away with anything he does but a woman is at her best, submissive, otherwise, her existence is liquidated.