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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