Femi-Nation

From time to time, E-Male admits that prudence requires men to be more bashful than boastful. The responsibilities and obligations expected from an ordinary, hardworking, middle-class man do have the tendency to weigh one down now and then; especially with so much women to woo, lead on, push around and (flat out) treat like amusing articles in a curio shop.

Sometimes, (and I do mean "some," a very rare "times") E-Male wishes he could stop being a dude with an attitude and simply be a devil-may-care bimbo in free-spirited limbo. Or, he could consider a dope-free Boy George as an unlikely role model if not for the fact that his music is on its dying breath. After all, being gender-neutral and in constant touch with his feminine side, Boy George is spared from much verbal bashing from the bra-burning and panty-hose waving feminists and advocates of political correctness who cheer him for merely doing his job — be man enough in being gay about singing New Wave.

E-Male has some grudging envy for Boy Georgie every time he feels the painful nipping of a hurt ego whenever he runs into trouble and tussles with the feminist kind. And then he goes into deep regression to pine for the days of prehistory, when the woman knew her place inside the cave where she served her husband-master well.

Instead, times have evolved under the confusing concepts such as "equality" and "feminism," "empowerment" and "freedom." The woman has challenged the seemingly preordained lordship of her male companion, and has arrogantly fled the cave to find some meaning — more than what is sometimes deserved — in her (rather bizarre, and over-complex) existence.

Unfortunately, the world still stubbornly believes that it’s a patriarchal society that is oppressive of women: sexist, chauvinistic, and down right prejudiced against the species in skirt. Such baloney (and puhleez, no phallic undertones) thrives when women are always portrayed as the persecuted even if there have been increasing instances where she assumes the role of the prototype predator.

But just how anti-feminine is the 21st century world? There have been quite a reservoir of polemics about anti-female biases in the workplace, the justice system, in the field of governance, the family hierarchy and the role of the modern woman in the world at large. From job opportunities to dressing up, from what you say to what you think, male dominance has supposedly put a hard foot down on women trying to find a voice amid the noise of testosterone. Though new laws, both written and unwritten, have been passed in hopes of molding an idealistic egalitarian society, gender biases will always be around — with men annoyingly depicted as villains. Or so the world says.

The standard plea of the purportedly oppressed woman has garnered sympathy on many fronts. Women’s rights have taken a whole new light, coming off as an almost lesbianist festivity of some sort. Leeway has been made for females in the different sectors as well, from the personal to the financial, the romantic to the political; always putting a tad too much emphasis on their strengths (yes, they must be good for something) and skipping right over their short-comings. In some parts of the planet, affirmative action for women has made men second class citizens.

In reality, as E-Male is very well aware that society is no longer patriarchal and reality is no longer viewed from the perspective of those who worship the phallic. Though gender biases are still as present as always — the tables have been turned and the players have been dealt a new hand. A new matriarchal society has risen; and suddenly, everyone wants a piece of PMS (Proud to be a Matriarch Syndrome).

Take shopping for example; the ever-popular stereotypical hobby of the Second Millennium Madam — something, they would say, that guys shouldn’t stick their dirty little fingers on. It may have been true with our great grandfathers, whose market duties have been quite generously bequeathed to our more than willing grandmothers; but with consumerism branching itself out into an entire subculture in itself, shopping is no more a woman’s job than it is man’s. Women pride themselves with the delusion that the mall is their personal playground.

E-Male even bets that the first thing Eve did after being banished from Eden was to go on a shopping spree for clothes and pleaded with the serpent to build boutiques and shopping malls — while Adam had to break his back and scrape the earth with his fingers until his carpals turned blue.

But even if "shopping" were synonymous to the inventory stuffed inside a woman’s closet, don’t men deserve to be just as maluho as women? Toys For The Big Boys is equated with conspicuous consumption and a sinful pandering to Mammon. But vanity is a human trait, not a feminine trait, and it’s purely matriarchal that something like shopping belongs exclusively to the female domain.

Then there’s the supposed "double-standard" men place on a multitude of situations — from job opportunities to finding a partner. The usual "if a man did it, it would be okay" argument. Feminism is an egalitarian ideal, so they say. The toppling of gender prejudices and equal opportunities for all. And yet women themselves expect so much from the opposite sex. Pseudo-feminists demand equal rights, as much as they demand chivalry.

Chivalry — the art of opening doors, pulling seats, giving up your seat in a crowded bus complete with the knight-in-shining-armor routine; and all for the sake of the damsel in distress. Women still presume they cannot make the first move and taunt a man for being "dense." Women tag their date inconsiderate if tardy, but see no fault if they themselves are the culprit ("it’s a girl thing," they always excuse themselves). As E-Male would quickly point out, the "double-standard" is actually self-inflicted.

Even the word feminist is a testimony to the evolving matriarchy of the world. Since the term chauvinist has been attributed to some sort of self-indulgent and patronizing macho attitude rather than a natural male behavior; there is no male-counterpart for the word feminist in the English language. Surely, just as many men have died for the rights of humanity as women, why isn’t there any advocacy for the advancement and protection of men’s rights?

When a woman stands up for her gender, it’s a sign of pride; and yet when a man stands up it’s a clear display of pomposity. When a man stares at a bombshell, it’s sexual harassment; but when a woman pinches a man’s derriere, it’s — well — cute.

It’s a dangerous time to be a man, E-Male realizes, worrying about the current status of today’s society as it slowly slides into an anarchic state of matriarchy and female domination. Human evolution may arguably have spiraled downwards after women demanded more rights and privileges than what most men could themselves enjoy and experience.

As Adam blamed Eve, Eve blamed the serpent, the serpent being a He With a Hiss. Hell will break lose if men all over can’t be men enough to stand up to female follies.