Humanity is both, Man and Woman!
 I
feel a lacuna in not having contributed adequately to the International
Womens’ Day that fell on March 8 and hence this contribution; better
late than never. I am not a great believer in the need to have a day in
the calendar dedicated to women for that infers that if that is the day
for women, then the balance 364 days in the calendar, should belong to
men. Thus this ‘dedication’ looks a subtle way of acquiring more days
for men by granting a day for women. After all, since this world is run
by humans and if man and woman make up the humanity having a day for
women makes her just another material in the hands of man.
Even this concept of the need to uphold ‘equality’ is a result of our
thinking that man and woman are too independent entities whose
relationship is competitive. This thinking is fallacious because man and
woman are not two entities but just two parts of the same entity called
the human race and their relationship is complementary and certainly not
competitive. They have a symbiotic relationship and this is amply
demonstrated by the complimentary characteristics, though different,
that are inherent in men and women.
Emotional stress
 Biologically
they are different and physiologically and psychologically these
differences compliment each other making the human race. Thus we should
not have a situation where men and women are looking at each other and
calling themselves different for the difference are not meant to
separate them but to unify in the making of humans.
Physically the man is strong and the woman is week but in physical
endurance the woman is stronger than the man. This makes the woman able
to go through child bearing and emotional stress for longer periods than
men.
There is a difference in the formation of the brain and its functions
too. Man’s reasoning power and the ability to project his thoughts
forward is greater than that of women but then woman’s brainpower to
remember and absorb is found to be greater than that of man. This is why
man does well in subjects like science and mathematics while women do
well in languages and law (only absorbing the text.)
A typical modern example here is the fact that though more women pass
out from the law college with ‘classes’ by their sheer power to memorize
the text, it is the men who eventually do well in interpreting and
arguing out the relevance of law.
Thus we have to appreciate the differences in men and women from a
complimentary perspective and their need to be so for human advancement.
This makes any discussion on the need to advance the cause of either men
or women superfluous for what matters at the end is the advancement of
the human race. In such a context I find competitions, even at the
Olympic level where men and women compete on the same events, though
separately, somewhat questionable.
For instance getting a woman to run as fast as she could to the point
of losing her womanly physique is hardly consistent with womanhood. Such
competitions are a sign of gross disrespect for womanhood. In that
respect there should be competitions that bring forth the female
characteristics of a woman making them compete among each other on those
talents. I am not suggesting that physical competitions are not suitable
for women and but there should be a shift in emphasis recognizing the
different characteristics and their enhancement. In other words there
has to be a whole new thinking with regard to the relationship and the
status of man and woman.
Uneducated women
There are macho religions and cultures in this world that tend to
rotate civilizations around the man. But could a man envisage a race or
a civilization without women? In the first place it is the woman who
brings the man into this world and then brings him up to the point where
he could sustain himself.
Then in adulthood it is the woman who provided the necessary
companionship, physically and emotionally to men for human advancement.
Thereafter even in advance age the role played by women in sustaining
the family is as equal as providing the wherewithal which the man is
traditionally expected to do.
If we analyze these religions and cultures that rotate around men we
could see that they carry with them there own destructions and
retardations of their societies. For instance those practices that deny
education to women make the children, the future of the race being
brought up by uneducated women.
Former Prime Minister of Singapore, having realized this made it
compulsory for educated women to have children. There may be a tendency
among educated women to have less children compared to their less
educated sisters, but then do we just need numbers at the cost of
quality to end up as a society of morons?
In a recent visit to India I notice a signboard in a medical
consultation centre that said, ‘Spend Rs 500 now to save Rs 50,000
later’. This I found is an advertising gimmick to draw pregnant mothers
to examine their fetus to ascertain its sex, a male or female.
Human civilization
The idea being that if the child is a female the parents would have
to provide Rs 50,000 for her dowry later on and thus finding the status
in time would give a choice to the parents. Such practices, I find is
the height of cruelty against womanhood and how could we envisage a
world that is dominated by men without the colour and care of women.
Such societies will soon find themselves in a position where there is
not enough women to play the complimentary role required for the
advancement of their societies.
Thus if the man is perceived to be the stronger of the two the human
civilization should compensate, rather than exacerbating such
imbalances. Therefore a culture that patronize physical violence against
women should be considered uncivilized. It is only that way that human
civilization could compensate the bounties that nature has bestowed.
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