We’ve created this figure called ‘man’ who is strong,
perfect and free of shortcomings, highly competent
and absolute. All men and women in the world are
trying to match up to this ‘man’, especially with the
advent of the ‘equality’ movement. But humans are
fallible after all. They are vulnerable, emotionally
and physically. They are weak, though differently.
This concrete reality, however has vaporised and left
us with what I shall call, perpetual insecurity and ex-
cessive self expectation.
Why? To match up to this figure of ‘man’ that we’ve
created.
B
ecause of historical and
unknown reasons, hu-
mans at large have inter-
mingled this figure of man and
the male gender. Erroneously
so, undoubtedly. So, if a normal
human being who happens to
be a male is not perfectly strong,
or is vulnerable or is physically
differently built as compared to
this misnomeric ideal ‘man’, he
becomes a victim of insecurity.
Women are considered to be ‘Not
a man’ by birth. So they are con-
sidered to be vulnerable, weak,
incompetent by default. There’s
nothing wrong with any of these
as long as one is content. But
people can’t tolerate the idea of
somebody’s contentment despite
deficiencies. It’s as if they want an
extra point for being close enough
to this follied creation of their
myopic and shallow forefather(s),
‘the man’. So, anybody not ‘there’
is ridiculed. Women by default
are ridiculed hence.
Now let me list out the cool
things that ‘the man’ does. He
drives perfectly well. Since wom-
en are not ‘the men’ so they can
never be good drivers (even if
they are) in the eyes of both men
and other women. Because it’s a
universal fact after all, right!
Now males are expected to be
‘the men’, the omnipotent souls.
So, by default, they are strong,
powerful, self sufficient, unless
grossly evident, otherwise. And
how do other men and women
address a male human being who
is not ‘the man’. Again, they rid-
icule him. Even if he were hap-
py and contented to begin with,
they ridicule him. They make
him feel bad about himself. They
gender shame him. They drive
him to a point where he feels the
need to meet the requirements
of ‘the man’, the manifestations
of which every second person
knows and which is reported in
newspapers and is also exempli-
fied by the film Parched. That it
was only to shed his own insecuri-
ties, Gulab was trying to become
foul and conform to the figure of
‘the man’ who takes advantage of
women (the physically vulnerable
lot) to inflate his ego and cave in
to gender stereotypes. Gulab was
a weak man, insecure and driven
by the gratification of his ego and
impulses. But alas, there’re many
like him.
‘The man’ is also expected to
take advantage of other liable
people, to prove ‘its’ supremacy.
So, if an aspiring male wants to
become ‘the man’, he needs to
take advantage of people. Since,
women by birth are considered
to be susceptible, because of be-
ing ‘physical blunted’ and/or
because that is the accepted per-
ception among both men and
women with centuries of condi-
tioning, they end up being at the
receiving end of this ludicrous
exercise. With the equality move-
ment, a lot of that is setting in,
among women as well. So how do
women combat this? Easy. They
pick on other ‘susceptible so what
if happy’ women or ‘exceptional-
ly vulnerable’ men and steal their
happiness from them, just to feel
good about their inherent (wait-
ing to be lauded) competence. Or