Optical illusions

I once asked a cynic about his preferences in women-oriented news articles. Prolonged pause and he remarked, quot;I would like to know ho...

I once asked a cynic about his preferences in women-oriented news articles. Prolonged pause and he remarked, quot;I would like to know how they could go through the hell of waxing. Isn8217;t it painful?quot; He grinned mischievously. quot;Just pulling your leg,quot; he clarified. My foot! But that I suppose sums up an urban male8217;s poetic dream about his femme fatale. Legs, for that matter, connote woman. Remember the coffee-table book Leg published by designer Donna Karan?

That also reminds me of this advertisement on MTV. quot;What is an e-mail?quot; goes the query. quot;E-mail? I would prefer female, please,quot; chortles a gawky-looking man. If you feel this is an aberration, think again. Fifty years of free Indian education could do little for our menfolk. In the rural areas, they dominate. In the urban areas, where they may not be always in a position to dominate, they sneer at women patronisingly. Mind you, I do not swear by feminism. I do not worship Simone de Beauvoir. My alter ego is Erin Brockovich.

But then, optical illusions always depict our attitudes towards women and by consequence the related media coverage. Isn8217;t it? With the exception of some research-based articles here and there, by and large one comes across frothy stuff to complement women8217;s issues. The other day I came across a huge analysis on the Lolita of the tennis world, Anna Kournikova, and another on the inimitable Mae West, complete with a list of her famous double entendre quotable quotes.

My cynic friend, while 8220;seriously8221; talking about his preferences for women-oriented articles, maintained that he would like to read stories detailing initiatives they need not necessarily be successes taken by women. I could count on my fingers the number of such stories. The few that there are have their focus very clear the initiatives are laudatory as they are by a species called women8217;. You see, they are not persons, but Women. Or to be more specific, Women.

So how does it matter if the Supreme Court passes strictures on the implementation of certain guidelines to plug sexual harassment at the workplace? Or for that matter, the routine crime stories filed on sexual harassment. Popular psyche has hardly changed. It is the herd mentality where women become either reluctant or enthusiastic participants.

Sample this example. Friendship between a man and a woman is still viewed through tinted glasses. This is a first-hand experience for me.

Interestingly, I have seen that the marital status of women is inconsequential here. The gossip and the side-glances inevitably settle on us. Tomorrow, when my male friend walks down the altar, hand-in-hand with his long time girl friend, some more tongues will wag, ostensibly at me. But do I care? Not exactly. Though it is not as easy as it is for the lass in the frothy advertisement whose refrain is, quot;I don8217;t carequot;.

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Double standards abound. On the one hand, we cry foul over equal status for woman, while on the other we do not even utter a whimper at the seat reservation for ladies in our BEST buses. Even if an old man sits down by mistake, I have seen ladies arguing over their quot;rightquot;. Similarly, the logic behind the Maharashtra government8217;s announcement reserving 30 per cent of the seats in engineering courses for women is baffling. Why pray? Let them contest on merit. No, as one professor cheekily provided me with an example of a lone female student in his department later shifting to another department as the latter boasts of more female students!

The agony of parents having boys cannot be more compounded.