Women, Men Are Not Your Enemies!

 

The Bible.

We all know that ‘Man’ and ‘woman’ are God’s wonderful creations. While creating ‘Man’ God created ‘Man’ in His own image and likeness (vide Gen 1:26 Holy Bible NIV).After creating ‘Man’, Bible says that the Lord God said “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him (Gen 2:18)”.Bible presents God’s account of creation of woman in verses 21 to 24 of Gen 2. “So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs and closed up the place with flesh. Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.(23)The man said, “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman’, for she was taken out of man.”(24)For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife and they will become one flesh.

A careful reading of the fore-going account of creation of ‘man’ and ‘woman’ by God, reveals certain basic truths about the relationship intended by God between ‘man’ and ‘woman’.
1) Though ‘man’ and ‘woman’ were created separately, they are intended to ‘together’ form one unit(flesh) as stated in Gen 2 verse 24. 2)’Man’ is responsible for the ‘woman’ as she is’ now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh’, Ver 2:23. So man’ is the ’guard’ appointed by God for protecting ‘woman’. Man in his various roles as father, brother, son and husband, protects ‘woman’ in all her roles as daughter, wife and sister. 3)’Man’ and’ woman’ form 1 single unit with 2 different complementary characters. Their roles are not meant to be ’conflicting’ but ‘complementary ‘with each other. 4) Man and woman are designed to live together and cannot live independently. In other words ‘man’ and’ woman’ form a ‘couple’ working together. Like a plug and socket or a bolt and nut.

While writing this, I take cognizant that the Bible is a Paramount reference book on ways we can individually and collectively strengthen our societal fabric through Sustainable, Relatable and Peaceful coexistence.

Feminism

Definition: The belief in social, economic, and political equality of the sexes.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie on Feminism!

She argues that "feminist" isn't an insult, but rather a label that should be embraced by all. While feminism advocates for equity and equality between men and women in all aspects of life, the fiercest opposers of women's liberation believe that feminism is a social movement that focuses on reversing gender roles and making men inferior. Adichie's "We Should All Be Feminists," succinctly unearths the need to transform social beliefs and gender constructs that promote the disparity between men and women. In essence, we should all be feminists not only as a commitment to women's liberation but also as a way of encouraging men to hold conversations with women on sexuality, appearance, roles, and success. Being a feminist entails championing for the rights of women and trying to make the world a better place for women. Feminism does not entirely challenge the biological roles of each gender as it only intends to revolutionize sexism by creating equal chances and opportunities for women and men. Feminism views people as human beings and aims to tackle the social injustices that silence people's will and power to exceed social expectations. Therefore, becoming a feminist normalizes women's success and allows men to strive to achieve even more in life. Participating in the contemporary feminism paves the way for a prosperous and all-inclusive future society. Empowering women is not equivalent to taking away opportunities from men. Teaching the community to accord equal respect to women creates a conducive environment for success. Therefore, encouraging people to become feminists tunes their minds away from cultural and social constructs that limit their understanding of gender on sexuality and roles and allows men and women to become who they want to be without restrictions. The book is critical of the way masculinity is constructed, suggesting that society as a whole must change if we are to reach equality.

Adichie’s rallying call for all to be Feminists couldn’t have come at a better time than this. There are, in my opinion some important questions that we ought to ask ourselves;

  • What are the cumulative gains so far on Women Empowerment?
  • Have we completely neglected the “boy child” at the expense of the “girl child”?
  • To whose advantage are the gaps created by the biased women empowerment supposed to benefit and why?

  • What is the role of the parents in the formative years of child upbringing in ensuring that there is equality of the sexes? 

As I alluded in my earlier sentiments, this is a thorny conversation we all need to pause, reflect and actively participate in. It is quite evident that achieving equality of the sexes cannot be achieved in exclusion of one of the sexes.

What we are seeing today, we have in our society a perception that is being painted that the Man is the “Enemy” of the Woman. The enemy in my view is; a) Lack of equal access to economic resources, b). Lack of equal political representation c). Outdated Societal gender biased constructs/practices. We therefor ought to constantly ask ourselves, why are still experiencing this in the 21st century?   In my humble views and submission, I would confidently wish to deconstruct this misconstrued perception, and reiterate that the Man is not the enemy of the Woman as the recent conversations may mislead the people in believing the contrary. We are caught up in a situation where people in position(s) of influence and authority can easily tilt a rather sober and enlightening conversation towards addressing societal misdemeanors to instead a conversation of settling scores, a conversation that is one sided, whose end result is a pre-conceived outcome-Vicious cycle.

Conclusively, we all would love to exist in a society that;

  •            Rights for all are respected irrespective of the sex.
  •            All sexes can vie for a political seat without being discriminated against.  
  •            All sexes can have equal access to economic opportunities.
  •            All sexes can apply and equally stand a chance to get any jobs.

This is a conversation we need to “Soberly, Meaningfully and Constructively” keep having INCLUSIVELY.

___________________________________________________________________________________

Authored by;

Brian N. Kavuwa.

briventures@gmail.com. 

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