The battle of the sexes

Since the beginning of time, the male has been considered as the stronger of the two genders. He’s always looked upon as the alpha male of the pack, the chief guardian, the prime tribesman. This held true as the early jobs of hunting and foraging were brutal and the physical and mental strength of man gave him an upper hand in the activities. Thus women were always looked upon as the weaker sex, too timid to do anything “manly”. Hence, mankind developed the theory of the weaker sex.

But since the stone ages, a lot of changes have occurred. Many were good and many were bad for the humanity, but that’s an entirely different blog story, I’ll get back to that one.

One of the good changes was the recognition of women as an integral part of the society. They were not looked upon as the weaker sex in most parts of the world. Special reservations were made for them in various fields, such as government’s scheme for parents with only girl child, education, jobs and travel even! If you are a Delhiite, then you must know about the special facility provided to women by the Delhi Metro Rail Cooperation. DMRC has announced that the first compartment in each metro train shall be reserved for ladies. Now they have their own compartment as well as the previously reserved seats in public transport buses. So apparently, women are not the weaker sex anymore. They walk with men shoulder-to-shoulder in each field.

However, during the past few years, a serious degradation in the status of the male has dropped significantly. And trust me, I’m not saying this because I’m a male myself, but as a result of various incidents that have occurred before my own eyes. For instance, take the metro rail, as told earlier, the first compartment is reserved for ladies, and if any man, even by mistake gets into that compartment, he is greeted with a garland of verbal tirades and classic desi style chaped. It’s no surprise if you get thrown out of the ladies compartment with red swollen cheeks and wounded self-esteem.

Not only the first compartment, but females have their seats reserved in the remaining compartments too. Let me tell you an incident that happened to me. It was the year 2009 and I was coming back from home. That time I lived in Bhopal and my college was in greater Noida. So I took the Bhopal Express and had to take the metro from Indraprastha so as to reach Noida. I don’t know about any other human being, but I sure do get tired after travelling for 12 hours straight. So I see no harm in sitting on an empty seat of the metro train which was not reserved for any physically challenged folks, senior citizens or any females.

 There I was, sitting down, minding my own business, until a young girl of about 18 walks up to me and says “Hello mister, have you no shame? Why are you sitting? Isn’t it your duty to offer a woman your seat?!”
I looked at her, she stared at me with wide unblinking eyes, I swear if she had a gun she’d shoot me then and there. I thought to answer her back, I wanted to say that “you have a full compartment reserved for you, go there!” or “this isn’t a reserved seat, and I’m very much tired and exhausted, whereas you look pretty upbeat and fresh, you spoiled daddy’s princess”
But a pathetic pushover that I am, I gave her my seat. My legs punished me for the whole day for straining them so much.

It’s okay if a woman makes a guy stand up if he’s sitting in the seat reserved for ladies, but it’s not applicable vice-versa. Why? It’s unethical. We men are the STRONGER SEX. Like the women care! There are no seats reserved for men anywhere in the world! Trust me my fellow males, men are not the stronger sex anymore, in fact we are the weaklings. Our physical strength is all we’ve got now.

Try saying no to a girl who’s requesting you to do something for her (which apparently she can do quite easily but won’t so as to save her the trouble) and she’s continuously giving you an innocent smile and saying with utmost cuteness “please”. It’s hard. Your cardiac muscles need to be made of steel if you can refuse a girl in that situation.

Women, no doubt are fantastic creations of nature. But they can yell at you, scream at you, spray pepper in your eyes, kick in your man parts, even slap you and you just have to stand there and endure it.

 The times have changed, society has changed, and people have changed. So has the meaning of gender inequality.