Sunday, May 24, 2009

"I'm the girl!!"

It’s tough to put up with all those dense heads on this planet, but sure I’m fortunate enough to be surrounded by people smarter than me too :)

And one of those smarter lots includes this colleague of mine. It’s a darn pleasure speaking with her. Not that we don’t have conflicting opinions but she is mature and intelligent enough to put forth them with the most convincing set of arguments. Hmm…some days being an exception, if I may add.

A few days ago, we ended up discussing something we had not discussed as yet and as it turned out we had absolutely orthogonal views regarding it. “Do you expect a man to pay when you go out with him?”

Her take was YES. Mine was NO.

While she found it gentlemanly and appreciated it as an act of chivalry, I had something else to say. To me it was no good a reason, but a bad array of arguments! I mean there’s absolutely no relevant correlation between being a gentleman and paying the bills! A person might as well show affection and respect by striking a good conversation , listening to my ideas and expressing his own without an inhibition.

Now girls… Come On!!! Just think about it. You expect a man to treat you equal. Give you freedom of speech, financial independence, fair choices in life. And then you foist a guy to dish out money on a date because traditionally it’s always been that way! Talk about double standards. Why one has to carry I’m the girl” baggage all the time?? One has to favour unbiased rights for one and all, including men!

Alright let’s imagine a situation where in I speak for myself. If I go out with a man for the first time and he insists strongly to pay, I would let him. But next time, we split the cheque. Simple.

Reeling in the old adage “Man earns the bread-butter” would tantamount to all those supposedly progressive females studying and working for nothing…right?? And what if the guy has just begun to earn, running a debt or in worst case still searching for a job, while you have a sound career for yourself?

Make it easy. Easy enough for him to enjoy your time and companionship without carrying the burden of paying for it every time you meet :)

This might be a very trivial issue which may not even deserve this bit of a space. But it surely reflects that we haven’t broken through the popular or better, rudimentary set of rules when it comes to A MAN or A WOMAN.

I guess some of the females would definitely be pretty cross with me and would definitely tsk –tsk on this, but I suppose not one and all have to conform to the usual expectations of society …right? If an unfair tradition was made long ago and was handled down faithfully over centuries, it doesn’t make it any fair. It remains as unjust as it originally was.

So if you disagree..call me what you want, just spell the word right.

4 comments:

Anand said...

world is not fair and definitely not in favour of guys. guys and gals are equal, just that girls are more equal. :-)

Arpita said...

Hmm..Anand..you see a pattern? Here we are again with a very generic statement!!And talking about world being fair to either of the sexes..dude when was "life" itself fair ???:)

Aur hamrako aapki commentawa ka antim bhaag tanik bhi samajh nai aaya..kripya prakash daale :)

Anand said...

So, there ARE some books you hvn't read. The phrase is picked from Geroge Orwell's Animal Farm. Ab itni door se itna hi prakash daala jaa sakta hai :-)

Arpita said...

Of course!!even though I would love to slurp off every book (read:good) under the sky :)
Arre udhaari ke panne toh sahi cite kariye:D
"ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL, BUT SOME ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS"
- George Orwell, Animal Farm, Ch. 10

Muahahahahahahahahahahahahaha