Here stands a man, or is’t a coward?

Today as I write this women’s day is seeing the last of the hours in South Africa. I wonder how it’s been celebrated by many. But more so, I wonder if most, particularly men, have sat back to contemplate on their contribution to the life of a woman. Whether this day says ‘acknowledge the need for a woman to express her talents and abilities’. Such a need is a natural need, and not an asking. It’s innate to humanity.

I thought about it a little and asked myself, why can’t each day be a woman’s day? Why can’t each day be a feminine day? I asked myself rhetorically after imagining the reality that, in fact, each day is a man’s day. Not because we carpe diem every time we wake up. No. It’s because the scales of humankind have always favored men. What we do as man, and also what we many a times fail to do, a woman does and often does even better with more care. But nevertheless, on the majority, the female species is going up against the odds. Against a whirlwind of disadvantaging walls invented by men before us and maintained tooth and nail by us each day whether knowingly or unbeknownst to us.

Methinks a man can be summed up by how he treats any other female person. Any man worth his two balls will know that he can’t respect himself enough as a man of worth if he treats a woman as less capable than himself. When a man can say he is a man and boastfully hit his chest to celebrate that, he first got to celebrate the level of his respect for a woman. In a non-patronising way of course. In a meaningful way. Then such is indeed a man.

I’ve been blesseth enough to grow up in a household where love prevailed in abundance. And such love was demonstrated by my father toward my mother. And I grew up witnessing that each day is a woman’s day. At least for my mother as she was (I shouldn’t say fortunate enough, but) 'fortunate' enough to spend such days with my father. And I’m proud to say that the man that is my enterprising father is what he is, every bit, because there’s a woman of strength and brains behind her, my mother.

So if a man shall stand one day and say I’m a man in the most meaningful of terms, I’ll look at how he treats female people in his life. And then if the treatment is queen-worthy, I’ll concur that indeed, here stands a man. Isn’t he a coward when he prejudices those that he has long labeled as a ‘weak’? Isn’t he the weak one he who can’t allow her to start anything on a par of resources? And better yet, won’t this global society that we live in today that lacks the basic of human necessities, love, be a better community when he whow is male can treat better her who is female! That’s not a question. But you can ponder upon it. Oh, and spread the love.

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