Plot X against Y

This Friday, I had a little chat with Sue during a break in Physics class about men and women. We arrived at the same conclusion: Men are too dominating sometimes. I cannot fathom why some men have a need to be very condescending and try to dominate women, or some become misogynists themselves. Most of all, they can go all the way to prove their masculinity from drinking excessively to adultery, and in the end leaving women beat and battered.

Reading through the history, it is clear that men had been dominating in every field that had become the professions hitherto. It is paradoxical how that the world's eminent chefs had been men when the field of cooking which has always been thought to be exclusively within women's realm. When people talk about chefs, they will sure imagine that it's a he, small, petite, wears a tall white hat. He talks with a French accent while twisting the ends of his moustache, and more than often than not he will have a detestable personality. Now, think of an engineer. Again, a man pop into the mind. The same goes with almost every occupation. All this stereotypes arose from the foundation in which the history had shown mostly of men's glory that overshadowed women's achievements. Sure that Jamie Oliver is famous for his works to promote slow food but how many of us knew Rachel Ray? With the seeds sowed deep and good, and with all the nourishment from the annals of the achievements of men, it is no wonder that some men today just cannot bend the ego tree and accept the fact that women are equally good or even better than them nowadays.

But dig deeper. The history is so because in the past there is the silent majority of the female population before the suffrage. No women was brave enough to voice out their feeling of injustice because they thought that they are the minority few. Majority rules due to the fact that the ideas of the majority is voiced out first. Fear and shame held them back, and they kept quiet for too long a time. Hence men were the ones doing researches, breaks the ground, and immortalised their names. Women had little, if any, chance to do so.

Then the World War breaks, and men are signing up to join the army because they are perceived to be stronger. All economy was brought virtually to a halt, since most men were taking up all the jobs in the market and now they are gone. Women took over and realised that they are as good as men even in laborious jobs such as constructing and farming. Feminism waves broke out and washed all over the West. They realised that they can live without a man controlling them and they did save the economy from collapsing. It was then that a lot of women 'firsts' mushroomed and continued to do so today. Still, it is a bit too late as the mindset of "men are more powerful" is still strong among, well, men. Maybe that's why men today still cannot just accept that fact as mentioned above.

Some did happily accept that. Some, on the other hand, did not. This is a sad fact, and still prevails in the East. Women are still considered to be subservient is a lot culture and are treated as a liability rather than a child, for example Waris Dirie herself in her novel "Desert Flower". Arranged marriage is still going on in India and most Middle-East countries, and some of them ended fatally. When men feel that the power over their women starts to slip, in the fear of losing the power, they start to beat up their wives, so that their wives dare not to disobey them. Ah, the classic use of fear to dominate. The film "Provoked" clearly showed this when the jealous and belligerent husband tried to control Kiranjit Ahluwalia's life by constantly beating her and even raped her. He forced Ahluwalia to wear traditional Indian outfits and stopped her pursue of higher education. (She wanted to be lawyer.) In the end? She, as a battered woman, burned her husband who later died due to the complications of his injury.

Sure, culture goes deep in our soul and flows in our veins, but we must now alter them. Not all traditions are applicable today. Time changed everything and we have to move on. Confucius once said: A woman with no talent or skills is a "good" woman. If your skull is so thick that you still hold this belief, then you will soon be ousted from the society and be labelled as a sexist. That saying was true then, in his time, but obviously not fitting into the society structure today, in which we promulgate gender equality so much. Men no longer predominate and women are climbing up the career and social rungs pretty steadily. So, just shut up and stop complaining about how that woman get promoted and not the man. The masculine wind had already shifted its direction. There are now househusbands and eminent female politicians in the world.

Having the Y-chromosome does not empower an individual. In fact the very chromosome that made men men contains little genetic material compared to the X-chromosome found in women. It is the best when men respects women equally as women respects men. No inclination towards either sexes, a constant gradient. Fair and square. Women are made out of men; not out his head to be controlled; nor out of his leg to be trampled upon; but out of his ribs, on his side to be his equal, under his arms to be protected, and close to his heart to be loved. Remember and practice that, Men!