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'In days of old when knights were bold', the men were the ones who went
about the business of ruling and running the country. The women remained in
the background, cooking, cleaning the house and bringing up the children.
Nowadays the situation has changed tremendously. Modern women share the
responsibilities of ruling and running the country as much as the men. We
have women ministers, general managers, pilots and truck drivers. No longer
are women considered the "weaker" sex. They are on
equal footing with men. They are emancipated.
Does their emancipation result in the
enslavement of men ?
If we look at our present society we can see that there are no male
slaves. Granted some men help in domestic chores, but merely changing
diapers and frying fish in the kitchen cannot constitute enslavement. In
fact I know of men who genuinely love to cook and look after their babies.
Attitudes have changed. Men do not feel that it is degrading to put the
clothes into the washing machine, nor is it humiliating to baby-sit while
the wife goes out shopping. It is common to see men lugging baskets full of
groceries while their wives pay the cashier at the counter.
It is also common to see women driving buses full of male passengers.
These men are not slaves.
Any man who feels ashamed sitting in a bus driven by a women, or feels
offended when a woman earns more than him, or feels degraded when a lady
policeman gives him a speeding ticket, or generally thinks he is superior to
women, ought to do a lot of rethinking. Times have changed. The all-powerful
tyrannical male no longer exists. In its place are sane men who share the
world equally with women.
In some parts of the world, old customs and
prejudices still prevail. There the women are still considered
second-rate. The male dominates and the female follows meekly behind.
However it will just be a matter of time when these women too will get their
emancipation. For the moment they may yet hide behind their apron strings,
but sooner or later their society will catch up with the rest of the
progressive world. Hopefully then they can be free from the yoke of
ignorance that had been stifling them for centuries. God knows what great
talents had been wasted because these women were not given any chance to
prove themselves.
When these women too receive some form of liberation, it is then up to
the men not to feel threatened. Instead of considering the women as
challengers, the men should welcome them as equal partners in this business
of living. The end of enslavement of women does not mean the beginning of
the enslavement of men unless a man is bigoted enough to enslave himself. |
