Women not weaker sex

By Bob G. Kisiki

We've all heard the expression ‘the weaker sex’ in reference to women and, unfortunately, many are tempted to take it literally. There are both men and women who believe that women indeed are weak, to their own detriment. 

Whether you understand ‘weak’ to mean a lack of physical strength, or emotional and/or mental weakness, you have no justification to think you’re right through and through. 

The other danger is in believing that referring to women as the weaker sex makes them feel bad, for it probably does not – at least for the average woman. We’ll soon know why.

When you refer to a woman as weak, she will let you believe it of her, till the day you push her to the very edge of resistance or patience, or till you turn your back. When that happens, you will be on the road, looking for the ‘bugger’ who misled you into thinking women are the weaker sex.

 If she is not among the physically strong women who have been known to pound their (and other) men like they’re beating pythons, she will show you that there are other forms of strength which make physical strength a weakness.

Long ago, women were more subjugated against than the modern woman is. Don’t eat this. Don’t go there. Don’t stand before men. Don’t this, don’t that. And the men loved that power; the women loathed it. But the women couldn’t get up and wrestle their men to the ground of submission.

So they used their strong brains — their wisdom and wit — to fight. They composed stories, riddles and proverbs which told men ‘yes, you might be strong, but not invincible’.

So you have a story where a teeny-weeny mosquito enters the nostril of the mighty lion, and the lion races through the jungle, roaring in agony, till another small animal, say the indomitable hare, helps him out. 

Such stories abound, where a weak, despised animal puts a bigger, stronger beast at its mercy…

Today, the woman still has her way. By projecting herself as this vulnerable, victimised member of society, she gets everybody to work in her favour: Activists, vote-seekers, the UN, NGOs. Everybody is out to root for women. The weaker sex. Ultimately, who wins?

In homes, you hardly ever hear a woman shout at her man, save for innate termagants who can’t survive without someone to abuse and shout at. But the average woman will go about her work meekly; acting the humble servant, till she puts her ‘weak’ foot down over a pertinent issue, like where to buy the land you’ve all along been planning to buy. 

You may have all the money ready, but until she has said a credible yes, you might either not buy that land, or buy it and fail to develop it peacefully. Pout. Sulk. Deny you this or that. Whatever. Still physically weak, but bringing you to your knees nonetheless.

Why do you think men are so aggressive in trying to understand women? It is so they can understand how someone ‘puny’ can still be so impregnable, without being in charge. How she can make you think you’re wooing her, but keep pulling the strings up to the end. 

How she will wear the ‘Helper’ tag, but ultimately cause you to take all the major decisions, almost all the time in her favour. That is the mystery; that is where men’s headache is.

Women are not weak. Since I was a child growing up in the village, I’ve been hearing stories of gross things women do to, of all people, their fellow women and their own children.

Gruesome things the devil looks at and thinks, when I grow up, I want to do stuff like that. Not that men are saints, but believe you me; there are things even a brave man will wince at when he hears that a woman has done them. But also, some things don’t make sense being done by women, and the reason is, we still think woman are the weaker sex… at our cost.