Man in a Woman's World...

Women are definitely a complex species, there's no denying that. But men and their complexities don't even get acknowledged. I mean, look around you. You have programs, support groups, support fan pages and what not for everything related to women. Don't get me wrong, I completely agree with the necessity of all that. I'm just saying, men are humans too. And to be honest, men need more support than women.

Irrespective of what the patriarchal society believes, women are definitely the stronger sex. And the sooner we accept that, the better. Because once we do, we can start developing a decent support system for men. I think the biggest issue with men is the fact that we don't like to admit that we need help. But to be completely fair, it is due to our upbringing. Right from our childhood, we are conditioned to shun expressions of weakness. We are trained to cloak our vulnerability. We are taught to be stoic.

And while I do understand the merit of this conditioning, I feel that it is time we started cutting the men a little slack. Of late, the world has become all about women. Women & their issues, women and their rights, women & their choices, women and their problems, women and their safety, which is awesome by the way, but not at the cost of men's invisibility. We exist too. And we are more than "chauvinistic pigs", "threats to women", "predators", "wife beaters", etc. We are human beings. Isn't it funny that I am making an appeal for men's equality? It has really come to that.

Of late, the world has been so busy protecting and nourishing the interests of the fairer sex that the whole male gender has been reduced to a series of unflattering assumptions. That has to stop. People must learn to pay attention to men, just like they do to women. If a woman you know is crying, you'll go and ask her what the matter is. But imagine a grownup guy crying, you'd most probably laugh at him, make fun of him for being 'girly' or you'd probably get uncomfortable and excuse yourself. That, my friends, is what I am talking about.

Moving further with the discussion, let me shed some light at why I am writing this piece. As I might have mentioned in one of my earlier posts, I am an abuse survivor. So the ordeals I faced as a child left me with a slightly dented personality. I'm bad at making friends. I'm socially awkward and I find it difficult to express my feelings. My personality is marred with insecurities and self-loathing. But because I am a guy, nobody cares. 

At this point, I realize that I have kind of made this article a man vs woman battle which wasn't my intention. So I will move it ahead, in a slightly different pace. Men are not pigs. Men are not the stereotypes that they are portrayed to be. Men are deeper and more human. Men are subjected to the same struggles in life that women are. Men face abuse too. Men hurt as well. And men hide their feelings. And it is not okay to take that for granted. Why is vanity only a woman's prerogative & why is chivalry only the man's responsibility? A balance must be set up.

Men need to be appreciated for who they are, not judged for it. Men need to be understood and deciphered just like women. And if nothing else works, then men at least need to be loved. #SaveTheMen #TreatMenAsEquals 

Update December 2023: Ooh, this article did not age well. In my defence, I was just looking for a little empathy - I did not see people like Andrew Tate blowing up in a big way. Ha ha.