The Sexes

“The men in our office are treated like the men in our serials – they are mere props!”

This quote by the pioneer of the Indian soap opera revolution, Ekta Kapoor, got me thinking. How would she have felt if she had been working in a male dominated office instead and some male colleague had passed this comment about the females in the office? And how must the men in her serial feeling about this comment? Popular male characters in the ‘K’ serials like Mihir, Anurag Basu, Rishabh Bajaj, Om and Kamal Agarwal,. ………these characters (and the many others) are not props, they are as important to the story as their female counterparts!
I wonder how many women share this opinion that men in their office or life are props. I hope there aren’t a lot many more. Because it is difficult to imagine a world with only one sex, either male or female. Men and women are meant to support each other, not destroy each other in the race for one-upmanship!
There was a time when men considered females the weaker sex. But today, attitudes are changing; the ‘feminine man’ (read the ‘metrosexual’ man!) is in vogue.
Now, women are achieving success in hitherto male dominated fields like the Armed Forces and IPS. But with it is coming the unhealthy attitude of male bashing. Why?
Does independence or feminism literally translate to life without a man? Why this thought? I mean, look at Brinda Karat. Or Suhasini Mani Ratnam. These successful women have their own identities, they are never referred to as so and so’s wife! Women like them really epitomize feminism.
The success of a woman lies in the balancing act. An educated woman who successfully balances home, family, work is the real feminist. Not one who feels that she has managed to get the men bow to her and do her bidding!
It is the law of nature that the sexes are meant to co-exist. Any attempt to disrupt the status quo can spell disaster. So pseudo - feminists and even MCPs, BEWARE!!