Battle of the Sexes

It is very unlike me to write on subjects that may hover on controversy. My diplomatic skills get the better of me and I smile incommunicado. However, I was requested to work on a debate last evening.In the opinion of the house, "women are stronger than men". I was requested to write on behalf of my mother, who favoured the motion. It'd had been 3-4 years since I'd scripted a debate for a friend, so I had my reservations on writing one. It's really not my cup of tea. But then as a male, speaking in favour of this subject on behalf of a woman would challenge my being, and also my imagination. So the mama's boy obliged. Here's what emerged an hour later:

" Have you had a peek at the latest issue of Maxim? You discover that Men's magazines are filled with pictures of pretty women. A women's magazine like Cosmopolitan also feature pictures of pretty ladies. This is because the female body is a beautiful work of art, which is best appreciated by men with Beer-bellies. That only goes to show the extent of influence that women have on men.

While it is a known fact that men are indeed physically stronger, a woman’s Intelligence Quotient(IQ) and her Emotional Quotient(EQ) can never be understated. How “intelligently” do we subjugate even the most muscular of men with our “emotions” and bring them down to their knees. A man initially encounters this situation, literally at the time of courtship, when he woos a lady for marriage. More often than not it’s masterminded by a woman, and after that a man is inducted into a vicious cycle of marriage. It is observed that a woman’s tears can sometimes make a man cry for mercy!

Men usually have little idea about enhancing their own looks. They are mostly incapable of looking their best without women. Jewellery for example is tastefully employed by women to look beautiful. Men can also capable of trying to experiment with Jewellery, but more often than not they'd end up looking like Bappi Lahiri.

There is little doubt about the fact that women are emotionally stronger. We definitely drain out a lot of our emotional repository in admitting we are wrong. However, even the most powerful man on earth, Mr. George Bush fails in this department.

Women are very good at attaching and detaching themselves emotionally and are not hung-up on any object of desire. Little girls are very fond of playing with their barbies, but get over it in their teens in order to pursue their career and everything else that follows like marriage, family, children, children’s marriage, retirement plans, medical bills etc. Boys seem to be better with their objects of desire. They enjoy a smooth transition from GI Joes in their teens to Bikes in their tweens, to iPods in their 20s to Playstations in their 30s to Blackberrys in their 40s and Titanium Credit Cards in their 50s. And if they are lucky, a woman or two, interspersed over the years.

Well, I haven’t even spoken of relationships. We women seek immense strength from our relationships. And emerge even stronger when we are out of one. All hell breaks loose initially but two months later, we’d be more than glad to moderate a “Battle of the Ex-es”. But how do the menfolk handle the same? While being in a relationship, their significant other assumes as much importance as Gym every evening, the Friday night binge with the boys, Saturday night game on TV, the laundry on Sunday afternoon, the Sunday night game on TV, the Monday morning presentation and the works. They also seem to be highly articulate in discussing their relationship over a few drinks with their buddies, “Oh! You know Deepa and I have a thing going, right?”. However, they seem to have a tougher time letting it go. Typically, three months after a break-up, he’d call and say, “ Oh! I’m so miserable without you in my life anymore. Can’t we give it another chance?”

Men always fancy being in the throes of power be it in their jobs or politics or even in a Rotary club. But for all the power they wield, they do have a “weakness” that can either bring out the best in them or lead them to their doom- women. History has enough of evidence to support the same, be it Helen of Troy in Greece or the women in Mahabharata or Ramayana closer home.

The problem here is more of perspective or may be the lack of it. History has taught us the primordially, man has been the hunter while a woman, the home-maker. For the roles to change, it’s more of a personal choice and history or evolution need not necessarily be credited or blamed. When the house fails to view the big picture, the members will gladly chew their “coffee bite” on subjects like “Woman is stronger than man”. Tch tch! The arguement continues...

Yours truly,
Mrs. D. Bates
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