Gender
Shredder
Let me first make a
statement of fact - I love women and admire their God-given gifts including
temperament, tolerance, etcetera and etcetera. Quite naturally! After all, it
is God who created a woman, right?
And, we men are all
sensitive - sometimes too sensitive - to women, physically, emotionally,
psychologically. If I sound defensive or, if you feel that something is
cooking, you might just be right. Let me assure you that we are not about to
witness a battle of sexes and yet, it just might turn out to be a rather sexy,
internecine war!
A rather silly question: if
H, E is 'He' and S, H, E is 'She', what is G & E ?? Oh, gee! Okay. A hint.
We the NGOs in development sector always, always associate the word
'sensitivity' along with G&E, a word used so often that some of us have
lost the nerve endings! Got it? Come on, be a man!
Okay. We have the word
'issues' used as often. Aha! Got it. G&E refers to children. Well well! You
men are all one-track mind, aren't you!
G and E acronyms for Gender and Equity,
silly – a subject of great interest when it comes to sustainable development!
If I may further explain to the best of my knowledge, it is all about sexuality
and equality. Cute!
It is likely that by now,
some of you guys, whims and fancies are getting irritated; worse, you might be
as confused as a bisexual. I don't blame you. After all, how do I explain to the
common man/woman, the misled villager, the poor tribal and lastly, the sexy urbanite
as to how, sexuality has nothing to do with sex, and equality should not be
interpreted as anything akin to homosexuality?
However, entrepreneurship
is such a wonderful gift. You see, they always create a need first. Then,
they will make you feel the need and,
call it a 'felt need'! The guys and gals will then tell you that they have this
thing that satisfies your felt need! It is you who are sold, not the product!
We were always thirsty, weren't we, and always drank water. But nowadays, we are
made to feel thirsty because someone told us so and keeps on reminding us. And
so, when we feel thirsty, we should now drink anything but refreshingly
yours insipid water!
The subject of Gender and
Equity is one such product manufactured by God-alone-knows who! We are certain
that God created the woman and all along, everything was just fine, for
heaven's sake. Suddenly, a fumbling-for-funding dude created the subject of 'Gender and Equity', never heard of by our forefathers (and mothers, sorry!).
For
me the male, supposedly 'expert' in environment and development sector, life
has never been the same thereafter.
God,
why did you create at all!?
PS:
I had entered this phase of my career in 1991 at age 40 when I first heard the word 'Gender' used by a high-profile lady consultant giving a seminar on the subject. What I noticed was that the lady, obviously from high-end economy, had actually lost her femininity associated with Indian women. She walked, talked and generally acted like a man. It sounded so incongruous - the man-nny talking about rural, underprivileged women and their problems with men folk. So specialised she had become in verbal bashing of men, that she herself had become, not only biased against men in general, but even looking like one.
I was angry, confused at that time and then in 2001, I wrote this little piece that had remained in my archives.
