I am because you are

Biologically,

A girl was born into a family of four. She had 2 older brothers and a younger brother. While her 3 brothers spent their times in school, acquiring academic education, she kept her mother company in the kitchen because according to her father, the only education she needed was that which would keep her marriage safe in the near future. In other words, she was being trained for a man who will acquire her as one of his trophies. This girl is being theoretically thought how to cook the food she eats, she is being thought how to clean her own environment, she is being thought how to speak only when spoken to, and she is being thought how to dress properly so that she wouldn’t get raped for indecent dressing. And as a practical teaching, she performs all she has learnt for the day after her brothers come home from school. Then as a reward, she would get a husband who will cherish her, and provide her with her needs and give her opinions if she needed one. When she became 15, her father started sending out adverts for her hand to the highest bidder. Her mother thought her girl was still too young, but her thoughts are not allowed to be voiced because she is seen not heard. Therefore it remains only a fetus that has now been aborted. At 18, she is still not married off, her father deems himself a failure, and calls his wife useless. Then his sons, his priceless jewels turned out fine; men. The oldest is an accountant, the other one is a medical doctor, and the last is still warming up. This girl has had enough. She needed to make a name for herself so she joined the choir in a local church. Coming back from choir practice one evening, she was raped and got pregnant. She swore to keep it from her father, but her Mother fearfully confides in him. She is to blame regardless; what did she wear, where did she go? She was careless, who will marry her now? Rejected, she leaves home to fend for herself and her unborn child. She starts prostitution, and she is called a whore, no man would want a whore as a wife. She tries schooling, but then she is an illiterate. Then a good lecturer promises her marks if only he could have a one night stand. She tries a decent job, but the position is reserved for the ‘men’ alone, plus, her pregnancy is a deterring factor already.

Sadly, the position will certainly be the same if this girl followed a different path. It would be the same if she was courageous not arrogant, assertive not disrespectful, determined not wayward. She would have been ignored as incapable not because she didn’t acquire the same academic education as her brothers did. Not because she wasn’t better than her brothers, but because she is a woman. Women are inferior, always, and should be seen not heard.

This discrimination as fond as we know it to be, does not only affect the female specie, but also the male specie. In fact, theirs is too deep to notice or be spoken about, else, one loses his “alpha male” chieftaincy, and would rather avoid being called a “woman” than to speak up. Discrimination in this context is that, a man’s success is a matter of life and death. This is because; a man’s worth is only measured by his financial status. A woman who fails in academia can easily rely on a successful man to survive. The genesis is still the same from that of women’s discrimination; our forefathers. In the olden days, farming and hunting was known as a big shot and for a man to be neither of these was downgrading. The difference with then and now is, women still grabbed men who were neither farmers nor hunters because her greatest achievement was getting married. However, she got a trophy if she married a farmer or a hunter

Now in our days, an unsuccessful man is preserved for women who didn’t go to school, or women who “didn’t know their worth”. In other words, no man asks about a woman’s occupation or status as much as women do. No man is allowed to be led by a woman because of what his fellow men would say, no man is allowed to cry or show emotions because they are men; men are tress by the way. This discrimination is never spoken of because of this toxic masculinity trend. No man wants to talk about it to avoid being called a “woman” which has now become a synonym for weakness.

However, Humanism is an ethical system that centers on humans, their values, needs, interests, abilities, dignity and freedom. Humanism is like a messiah that has come to redeem the quest for want of the feminism and masculinity movement. Humanism is live, and let live. Men and women can coexist together, without a fight for who is superior to the other. In the unending fact that a man and a woman can never be equal due to some biological factors, it cannot be affirmed that a man is superior to a woman, and otherwise. Feminism should be equity, equal opportunities, let the person with a better capability win. This can also be applied in other fields like race, ethnicity, and religion. Humanism tends to take away the surface level of “what a person is” and introduces “who a person is”. No man’s success is attributed to his gender, race, ethnic group or religion. But to his competence, strive, hard work and commitment, and most importantly, to his team.

In conclusion, Human beings cannot exist in isolation. A man and a woman depend on connection, community, cooperation and interdependence in each other to exist. We simply cannot live without each other. A man is not superior because a woman’s role is not insignificant to a man’s self acclaimed success, and vice versa. And this makes us humans. I am, because you are.

@Ozzyy @MarcDeMesel @Woolyrhino @Leo_kitti @Gwenie @gertu13@gertu13 @wakeupkitty @Hanzell please what do ya'll think about this short story?