Kavita Ramdas: Radical women, embracing tradition

http://www.ted.com Investing in women can unlock infinite potential around the globe. But how can women walk the line between Western-style empowerment and traditional culture? Kavita Ramdas of the Global Fund for Women talks about three encounters with powerful women who fight to make the world better -- while preserving the traditions that sustain them.

TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes. Featured speakers have included Al Gore on climate change, Philippe Starck on design, Jill Bolte Taylor on observing her own stroke, Nicholas Negroponte on One Laptop per Child, Jane Goodall on chimpanzees, Bill Gates on malaria and mosquitoes, Pattie Maes on the "Sixth Sense" wearable tech, and "Lost" producer JJ Abrams on the allure of mystery. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design, and TEDTalks cover these topics as well as science, business, development and the arts. Closed captions and translated subtitles in a variety of languages are now available on TED.com, at http://www.ted.com/translate. Watch a highlight reel of the Top 10 TEDTalks at http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/top10

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[danzefirelli]

wow great speach!!!!!

[sofasharky]

women are fuckin awesome!

[Lokifan13]

Humanism is... a specific philosophy begun in the European middle ages. Seriously, look it up. Also, feminism is the movement for women's equality and that's what everyone calls it, I'm not trying to change a definition. That's the definition already. Look in the dictionary.

[Gomer Pyle]

i think that as long as human culture still ties sex to procreation, women will never have total equality in a relationship, because in a relationship bewteen two people that has as much ar stake as breeding rights. someone is gonna lead and the other follow, and if two people cant coexist in a lead follow relationship they will fight and then the relationship ends and maybe your kid gets taken from you or something.

[Gomer Pyle]

i think, im a man, im not a pussy, if women want to go stomp around and not get fucked with and protect themselves, so be it, they can be men if they want to be, they can be housewives to, idk they can do w/e the fuck they want.

[Gomer Pyle]

its the perversion of femenism that angry lesbians and rape victims seem to follow that causes people to be unconfortable with femenism. i think the word femenism is kind of an odd one to pick when what you're looking for is equality, and some femenists want to be dominant and dont care about equality. i prefer yo just listen to what people say and not label them and try and group and generalize them with other people.

[shharebear]

So the fault is that they are naming their issue and cause? I cannot even fathom the ignorance in your reply.if you dont concentrate on "those" you are clearly not making a proper judgement. You refused to see feminism from all its angles and you insist on perpetuating a false view and you claim youre right because...you dont care enough to aknowledge yourself with proper information?

[noobler9]

feminism is not humanism, humanism is humanism, focusing on one thing is favouritism

keep your "church and dogma" to yourself and quit trying to change definitions to suit your wants

[Lokifan13]

*sigh* Just because you feel threatened by feminism doesn't make it a "womanist domain". Fighting for the lives of women dying because they are women is *exactly* what feminism is, despite your attempts to define feminism as "things women do that I don't like". Feminism /= common sense, in your eyes? So women having jobs and the vote and their own bank accounts and the right to not be raped by their husbands, none of that's common sense?

[noobler9]

well, I don't concentrate on those, and if others are concentrating so much on themselves and their issues that they have to give fancy silly names to their ideas then I'll let them do all my concentrating on themselves for me

:)

[noobler9]

that's not feminist, that's basic common sense, trying to define it was this womanist domain is silly

[ZarlanTheGreen]

Well yes, and that's all fine.

However, if you look at the comments I was replying to, you will see why I said what I did.