#MenToo?

The pendulum has swung. Not too long ago, the members of the fairer sex had a raw deal. They were placed as second-class citizens. They were discriminated against, received less salary and failed to capture high-ranking posts. They were assumed to think with their heart, not their brain, more emotional and less rational. Social restrictions were imposed in the familial hierarchy. They had to play second fiddle to a father figure in the family unit. Even when it came to passport applications for children, the father's consent used to be mandatory, but the mother's. 

There was a time when having a 'Y' chromosome was synonymous with masculine toxicity. Activists screamed of discrimination. They quickly illustrated how far behind they were in achievements compared to the others. They demanded legislative changes to correct the inequality. It did not matter that many females were actually more interested in other delicate stuff like fitting into their gendered roles than sweating it out in the rat race. They tried to show their presence through their romantic, creative writings in the early years, followed by the satiety of feeling of a blowing breeze when they indulged in cycling, symbolic of feeling freedom.

With the availability of education and mobility, everyone thought equality and empowerment would be the natural sequelae. But not really! Just as we thought everyone would have their place in the sun, chunks of the population think we should go more conservative. The female populace takes it upon themselves to take a back seat. Some used ancient scriptures to stunt women's development. 

Not all laws initiated by society end up serving the real needs of the masses. The #MeToo movement has shown us this. In this day and age, all one has to do to defame and defile a male is to allege that he had touched her inappropriately or acted without her consent. The truth, whether the action was consensual or did actually happen, is immaterial. The intended damage will happen like clockwork. 

Atul Subash

When Cupid misfires, and love turns sour, the feuding couple will start hurling accusations against each other. In India, the estranged wife has multiple secret weapons to deploy. She can accuse him of dowry harassment, sexual misconduct and domestic violence.

The recent suicide of Atul Subash, a tech professional from Bengaluru, had too much to deal with during his divorce proceedings. He alleged that his wife kept adding false accusations against him to the umpteenth cases already there. He added that the legal system is against men in every way it turns. Even though women can earn and stand on their feet, the system still expects the husband to pay alimony. The wives scorned have mastered the art of using the law to entrap and bankrupt the husbands dry. Atul clearly mentioned these in a 40-page confession and 80-minute presentation just before he hung himself.

Even though everyone is equal in the eye of the law, it cannot be denied that it is sympathetic to expressive and emotive victimhood-displaying females. In the eye of the law, by default, the male gender is the aggressor. They do not see males as the silent sufferers or the abused. There is a need to have gender-neutral laws. As is quite apparent, there can be aggressors on either side of the fence; there are gentle males and combative females, too. And there are passive-aggressive ones, too. 

Ironically, a law created to defend the vulnerable had spinned on its own head. The vulnerable have mastered the nuances and loopholes of law that they have wrapped around their fingers to give the accused violators.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

A menless future?

Nocturnal Animals 2016
Director: Tom Ford

On the one hand, people talk about masculine toxicity, while on the other, they want men to exert their muscular prowess to protect them. When the situation warrants, they want a man to 'act like a man'. When they want to be left alone, they say, 'Don't gaslight me!'

This quite compelling movie has the same intensity as 'Cape Fear' (both Robert Mitchum and Robert DeNiro versions). It tells the story of a couple and their teenage daughter who are carjacked while travelling through the Texan countryside. The man is taken for a joyride while the wife and daughter are raped and killed. All through the movie, the man is mocked by the young punks hoodlums who carjacked the vehicle for not being manly enough to give them a good fight to protect his family.

The film's story is mainly about a novel draft written by an ex-husband for the ex-wife to read. The movie rolls as she reads through the draft and reminisces about their time together. During their stay together, the persistent issue that crept up was that the husband was not assertive and ambitious enough. Her push for him to sit and write his first novel did not augur well.

As the story progresses, a year later, the man, together with the investigating police officer, returns to the crime scene. As the evidence was weak to arrest the criminals, they took the law into their own hands. The man feels satisfied that he became man enough to kill his family's killers.

Amami spiny rat with no Y chromosome

As if by synchronicity, I soon heard of a science report about the possibility of the Y chromosome going extinct after watching this movie. The X and Y chromosomes initially started being about the same size. Over the years, Nature found many of the genes of the Y-chromosome superfluous and unnecessary. About 1,600 genes disappeared in about 166 million years. We now have 55-56 genes on the Y chromosome, but only 27 are needed to make a man a man. At a rate of loss of 10 genes in a million years, the Y chromosome may disappear in 11 million years. Are we looking at a manless future?

Scientists discovered that a Japanese rat species, the spiny rat, had no Y chromosome. Other chromosomes, however, evolved to ensure the presence of a male-determining gene to maintain the male-female distribution.

As with the complaint that modern men are being domesticated to the extent that the Y chromosome may risk being a vestigial one, fearing the brink of extinction, fear not. Their bodily hairs may reduce, and the skin may be unblemished, but the human species may not have to resort to parthenogenesis or self-pollination to procreate.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

With claw, cleaver or cleavage, they clamour...

They are no more the weaker sex, the fair one, the one who plays second fiddle, the subservient one, the one to be seen but not heard. Sometimes, their presence was not even made aware as veils hide either their enclosures or their faces.

Nanthini

The world realised that second-classing half of the population was counterproductive. With the demand for extra pairs of hands in meeting the requirement of the times, the members all sexes were pulled in. 

For the first time, women realised that they too could walk shoulder to shoulder with men. With generations of oppression and suppression, their DNA must have understood there was dire need to evolve to stay relevant. Now more and more of them came out their cocoons, demanding equal rights. The powers that be had to relent.

By then, everyone realised that it was the way to go. The cake was big; there was plenty for everyone.

Somewhere along that path, something went astray. Socio-economic rights were confused with biological differences. Even though both sexes had been intrinsically made with differing roles and liberty, ladies insist that they want the exact leeway that was provided to their other opposing half. Rather than looking at their position as like that of two eyes working in synchrony to provide stereoscopic vision, now each eye liked to think that one is superior to the other.

Lately, the gender with the extra X chromosome had realised that they had a secret weapon. Liberation of sexes saw more than tunics that became scantier. The less the people hid, the more people wanted to see. Ladies have mastered the art of showing too little too much; giving little to the imagination but stirring the curiosity, nevertheless. Raising the hemline and lowering of the cleavage were sure ways to raise eyebrows or capture a roving eye.

Once the attention is of the intended is grasped, they moved in. Absorbing the knowledge denied to them thus all this while, they demanded more. They cried foul when their opportunities were denied. They wailed and drew crowds.

The coup de grâce must surely lie in the skilful exposure of the mammary glands. Enticing of the intended unassuming victim to ogle may knock him off his rockers. Even though the subsequent course of events may have been mutually entertaining and beneficial, or even educational, it is the self-proclaimed 'weaker sex' that decry injustice. They have no qualms in washing dirty linen in public and is equally at ease at invoking secretions from the lacrimal glands for good measure. Mission accomplished, and they would soon scale greater heights.

What is the point of all these; to prove that they are more powerful and resilient? Biology has already shown that their kind is already strong. After enduring aeons of hardship, their survival skills and ability to combat adversaries are proven. Their strength must have come from their task of carrying, caring and protecting their young from the womb. Now, if they wilfully decline that role, are they going to lose that quality in time to come?

A scene from 'Young Frankenstein'
Remember the line?

https://asok22.wixsite.com/real-lesson 

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Do we do it for love?

Irudhi Suttru (இறுதிசுத்த்று, Final round, Tamil; 2015)


This flick which falls under the new category as far as the Tamil cinema is concerned, sports drama, was recommended by a long time connoisseur of Indian arts, music and performing arts. I decided to give it a go.

I was floored by what I saw. It breathes a fresh of new air into an otherwise stereotypical exploitative misogynistic world of Indian cinema which pays more attention to the erotic female part of the anatomy rather than exploring themes of empowerment and positivity. For the outset, one can kind of predict the direction of the movie, just as most stories from this genre are. There are more things to see here than the mere storyline and eye-candy. It is the setting, the simple real to life acting and realistic boxing that are the selling points of the offering. Sorry, no glamorous, exotic looking Aryan beauties in psychedelic-hued garbs to savour, just sweaty girls from the fishermen's village in boxing shorts (not boxer shorts!).

The songs are not sung by actors but form as a background score to set the mood to the flow of the story. The songs most sound like traditional village songs with understandable Tamil wordings and skeletal accompanying percussions.

A disgruntled sportsman with loads of potential failing to rise to the occasion due to unavoidable circumstances, own follies or external manipulation is all too familiar to us. Due to non-conformity to rest of the corrupt officials with personal agendas and self-gratification, Prabhu is non-ceremoniously sacked from his coaching job in Delhi and is sent off as a punishment to an under-sponsored under-performing amateur boxing club by a fishing village. Prabhu lives a bitter life after failing to hit it big in the international boxing arena after a sabotage and after his wife walked out from his life.

He detects an unexpected talent in an untameable crude young fisherwoman, Madhi. In the sea of mediocrity, he sees raw trainable talent for world class boxing. All through the turmoil of sibling rivalry, the sister's passion for making it to the police academy, family poverty perpetrated by a drunken father, attitude problems, puppy love and sabotage from the top, the hero expectedly, extracts the pearl from the mud which harvests the oyster!

Two things struck me as I was watching this movie. Firstly, the concept of love in the modern world, no thanks to the lingua franca of the world with its limited vocabulary for the word 'love', every gratifying feeling is equated to passionate lustful love. Perhaps because of the fear of growing old and unproductive, modern man subconsciously tries to keep the fire for lust burning in his belly way past his shelf life, sometimes with the help of pharmaceutical agents.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.G. Ramachandran, who was the

chief guest, with Muhammad Ali and Jimmy Ellis during a 

boxing match in Madras on January 31, 1980. 

Next, everybody in the film seems to be behaving as if they are sacrificing for another. Madhi is frustrated as she has to give up so much to take care of the family as the father neglects his duty as the head. The father feels he is suffering by having two female heirs, instead of sons, as a curse for marrying outside his caste. The elder sister believes her sister, Madhi, is spoiling her chances by boxing better, but she gives in. The mother feels she gives in to the whims and fancies of her alcoholic husband to ensure the family stays intact. The coach uses his own funds to sponsor the boxers, another sacrifice! Are they all genuinely going out of their way for the love of it, the game, the bond, the passion of the sport or the DNA-blood relationships? Is it based on self-interest? The pride of having a kid who is a world champion, the coach who geared his student to the world stage or the fame and wealth behind these?

Another subtle message that is sneakily made evident is how different generations, particularly the women folks, go with their day to day challenges. The older GenX ladies appear more fatalistic in expecting many outcomes in life. They accept their second-class role in society almost willingly. The millennials take nothing lying down. They give a good fight, standing shoulder-to-shoulder challenging the obstacle ahead eye-to-eye with their counterparts of the opposite sex!

A highly recommended movie. Remade in Hindi as well (Saala Khadoos). An example of the direction of the new wave of Indian cinema. In the same vein as ' Bhag Milka Bhag', 'Mary Kom.'