Is it really that bad to be a woman?
I am pissed. I am really pissed. It finally occurred to me what’s wrong with the world. Women will never be equal to men, no matter what we try. Even if womankind rose up the ranks to head the biggest multinational corporations, even the most powerful nations in the world, we will never be equal.
Why? Because we will always, always be screwed!
During this week’s Jamuhuri Day celebrations, I saw a picture that finally made everything come together. An angry Kenyan decided to show his dissatisfaction with the state of the country by posting a single photograph on Twitter – of wild rhinos mating – and captioned it “What the Western world is dong to our country”.
BEING SCREWED
Of course I was able to deduce that he meant that our beloved mother Kenya is being screwed by Western and Eastern super powers. And then I thought about that word, screwed. Then a lot of realisations came to mind.
Screwing is the tamer (and more printable) word used to vulgarly describe the act of making love. It usually denotes the actual act of penetrating someone during the deed, like a screw would penetrate a piece of wood in carpentry.
It occurred to me that even though the sexual act is not bad or dirty, it is an unpleasant and unenviable position to be the woman in a sexual encounter, basically the one who gets screwed. Hence, whenever one is being dealt a bad hand, they end up being ‘screwed’, by life, a business partner, a spouse…etc.
It is amazing how many turns of phrase that have been thought up using this word in this context and how, up to now, nobody, not even women themselves, have seemed to mind the existence of the sayings and even use them. It is sad, in fact.
SICK PHRASE
Is it really that bad to be a woman? Did we get the short end of the stick when, at conception, we got two X-chromosomes instead of just one? Is it that terrible to be on the receiving end of consensual screwing?
It is such careless utterings, such simple words that make me believe that we will never be equals. Because if a simple biological act, the ultimate way for two human beings to express love for one another, ordained by God himself can be turned to something so nasty, to mean the worst has happened to you, then how can we ever stand on the same footing?
Please, if you can refrain from using this sick, sick phrase, I urge you to do so, for the sake of women.