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What men want
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Men crib that most pro-women policies have them at the receiving end
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Photo: R. Ragu
MEN ARE from Mars, women are from Venus and feminists... they come from wonderland. Pardon this MCP ladies, but that's what some of the men in town are grumbling about on the eve of Women's Day. The guys are quick to add that it's the militant feminist, and not feminism, that's getting on their nerves.
"Sometimes, when I think of it, I feel that we men don't get our due in certain situations," remarks Mukesh Kumar, manager at a multi-national bank. Mukesh, who became a dad for the first time four months ago, adds, "Take maternity leave for instance. Yes, it's the mother who does most of the baby care but we dads do a fair bit of running about too. When a baby cries at three in the morning, it isn't just the mother who puts it back to sleep. I think there should be a provision of at least one month's paternity leave."
And the arguments begin, with most men feeling that equality of the sexes is an idea that's been blown out of context and proportions. "If women don't want to be treated as the weaker sex, why do we have special buses for women. It would be much nicer to arrange such buses for the senior citizens," says Pankaj Chauhan, an engineering student of DVR College who is preparing for his management exams. "There are so many women who ask middle-aged men to get up during bus journeys so that they can sit.
Mumbai is much better as the seats in the buses out there are filled up on first-come-first-sit basis and not gender," he adds.
Letting out steam with similar observations is Amit Singh, an Intermediate student who is all set to write his engineering entrance. "I am totally against this huge reservation (33.33 per cent) of seats for girls. That's a bit too much. How are the boys, particularly those who fall in general category, expected to compete with the odds stacked against them like this?" he questions.
Finally, up comes the age-old skirmish that's got so much to do with that slime `n' sleaze three-letter word. Much hullabaloo has been made of women being treated like sex objects. But it looks like the tables have turned on this front too. Citing a television show where men are paraded around and graded by a room full of "screaming" women, Vinod Yadav, a call centre executive, defends his tribe,
"If getting the men to strut around in boxer shorts isn't treating them like sex objects, then female beauty pageants are just as fair. Bias isn't a derivative of gender, it's about who has got the upper hand, be it a man or a woman." To end this article, in all chivalry (in the hope that it's politically correct to use the word), here's wishing all the ladies a happy Women's Day!
K. SACHIDANAND MENON
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