The Man Syndrome, The Woman Syndrome

Sometimes, I just can’t convince myself why it is better to be a girl than a boy. There are just many things that I can’t do when I’m in this kind of body. I can’t just remove my shirt in front of men whenever I feel so hot (nah, uh—not the hot feeling whenever we are in the summer solstice!); or I can’t rush things like traveling whenever I get caught by the rush hours by just hanging on to the jeepney instead of waiting in vain for a ‘spacey’ jeepney. I can’t ride a bike if I’m wearing a skirt. I can’t do the “spread eagle” (You know what I mean.) in public and; the worst is, being uncomfortable every month of my life (as if I have “this” every month.). These are just some out of a million things that I hate about being a girl. But, I come to think of this—these are just minor problems (hey, that’s another problem of a girl!), there is more to femininity than these girly problems.

Being a female is much more of good news to me because women have high endurance of pain than men. Talking about the labor and pain in giving birth, emotional and sometimes psychological problems that women have the greater chance to survive—this can explain the statistics that show that a bigger percentage of men commit suicide than women.

Okay, enough for the women’s good points. Let’s tackle on the weak sides of both men and women. I don’t want to be too one-sided on this, so I asked a man who is my friend Timon (Hi Monti!), to give me some inputs on the issue on the men’s point of view. So this was his answer (verbatim):

“The problem of men and women:

A woman likes the seduction part (flirting and stuff). A man likes what comes after. The problem of a woman is to maintain all of that attention. The problem of the man is how to reach the end. As Don Quixote said, “Love for most young teens is NOT love BUT LUST.””

I was surprised with his answer but he has a point there. That’s what I have observed by most teens now like what my friends saw at the lagoon last Sunday (I don’t have to mention it.). But as a teen, I can’t somehow relate with what Don Quixote said because I still haven’t sot to the point where I was to draw a line between love and lust. On the lighter side of the issue (still verbatim) he said, “I do have minor problems as a MAN, problems like shaving and other hygiene practices for men (but some women do some of those). One of the men’s problems is the moral obligation to protect women (but some think that it is a sexist mentality).”

It’s just so funny why he sees that obligation as a problem like it’s a burden. I just don’t know, maybe it really is. I can’t judge them of what they totally are and how they live their lives because I don’t get the feeling of being one, of course.

Both sides have their own problems so there’s no point of arguing on which is the better gender. Now, I’m finally convinced and contented that I’m a girl. I suppose you are satisfied with what your own gender offers you too.