Swami Vivekananda’s Problematic Views On American Women

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Representational image: Wikipedia. Vivekananda at Mead sisters' house, South Pasadena in 1900.
“I am, as it were, a woman amongst women. Therefore, I have seen, and am seeing all of their play”.

When Swami Vivekananda went to Chicago in the United States, the ascetic closely observed the women there. And whatever he observed, he wrote in a letter to his confidant Mr Manmatta Nath Bhattacharya. He wrote:

I am now closely associated with them in all their affairs; I am, as it were, a woman amongst women. Therefore, I have seen, and am seeing all of their play.

The observations of the great preacher of Hinduism would be considered highly problematic from a feminist point of view. For instance, according to Vivekananda, getting a woman married to a man is a very tedious task. Ergo, in India, this job is overtaken by the parents of the child. On the other hand, in the United States, women have to search for a man themselves. And so American women constantly scheme about how to get men.

The idea behind this perpetuates harmful stereotypes like “women are out there to grab a guy and own him” or the whole cougar stereotype where a woman managed to grab a trophy husband, where she is the boss.



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