THE DURIAN BEAT

By Roger Balanza

Women power and the Calvary of men

We celebrate in the month of March two events: Womens’ Month and Holy Week.

Women’s Month is, for the women, about the celebration of women rights, but for men, should be a condemnation of the excesses of women power and how it is being abused.

During the Holy Week, we recall the suffering in Calvary of Christ, that should remind the men about their own Calvary in the hands of women.

Womanhood today is a far cry from the past, when women were considered as the “weaker sex,” and consigned to a role that sentenced them to mere “housewives.”

Today we have women in the Senate, Congress, as head of key government offices and executives of large private corporations. In the household scene, there are men forced to wear the skirt by domineering wives. Unable to fight for their rights, they keep their hell to themselves in silence, with no one to fight for them.

The women, on the other hand, have civil societies, peoples’ organization and non-government organizations to defend them.

To top it all, there is a law, the Violence Against Women and Children (VAWC) Act, that has emasculated, caponized and pushed men into a marginalized sub-species called Takusa (Takot sa Asawa.)

The concept of gender sensitivity today that sadly tilts towards women should be re-worked to include the male species as part of our society that needs protection from violence, especially committed by terrorist partners.

As matters now stand, the Third Sex composed of the LGBT (lesbians, gays, bisexuals, and trans-genders) are better off than men, with anti-discrimination statutes in place shielding people of the other kind against all forms of abuses.

The so-called “weaker sex” of yesterday has become an empowered force in society, which should command a drastic revision of the concept of gender sensitivity to include the men as an endangered species.

VAWC pushed into law by the women’s rights group Gabriela, not only provided an armor to women against abuses but also made women highly politicized…and violent?

Early this month, POs, NGOs, activists and so-called champions of womens ’ rights kicked off Womens’ Month with nationwide rallies mouthing slogans against unfair labor practices, bureaucratic corruption and extrajudicial killings. On the side, they lambasted President Duterte for his sex jokes.

Oh, how we wished the women also called for the protection of men.

As we celebrate the Holy Week and the Crucifixion of Christ in Calvary, it might as well be apt for men to celebrate with extreme anguish and pain their Calvary in the hands of Hitlerian wives.

Sad as it may be to realize that there are many hubbies living in domestic terror, there is deliverance for men in Holy Week during the Easter, in the resurrection and ascension of Christ.

Men should welcome Easter with hope that the Lord in heaven would do a miracle to save battered husbands from terrorist wives as He saved mankind through His crucifixion.

There are many hubbies who handle domestic terrorism by simply keeping silent about their fate to prevent a world war in the house.

There are also men who go home to a wife who day-in, day-out, yaks and nags and inflict on them all kinds of violence.

The fact is that in the Philippine society today, women have become a privileged lot given rights that men wished they have too.

There are many wives of the Abu Sayyaf breed who get away with their terroristic habit of inflicting physical and verbal abuse on their husbands. Most often, the battered hubbies keep their miseries to themselves, for the sake of domestic peace or because they don’t have legal weapons to shoot the little demons.

The women? Oooopppsss, ingat ka! Pinch her nose and she could run to the barangay or to the courts to complain about her rights  as a woman being violated under the VAWC law.

The VAWC is the mantra of women and women rights activists in pushing government to pass the law to protect women against all forms of abuse. With many husband-hating women abusing their rights by invoking VAWC and the poor hubbies meekly suffering and accepting their goddamn fate in the hands of their Abu Sayyaf wives, it is time that gender equality should be placed under intense discussion.

This time, the men should demand gender equality and call for approval of a law that would protect them from abusive partners.

Is there hope for the Takusa gang? Yes, there is but the men should have the courage to fight for their rights as women did to reach their status today.

If there is a VAWC, there oughta be a VAMC or the Violence Against Men and their Children Act.

I recall that years ago in Davao City, a group espousing “men’s rights” surfaced to save battered hubbies from the most cruel of experiences for a male specie in this universe: being insulted, crucified, laughed at and joked about by friends and neighbors because they don’t have the heart and courage to stand up to a partner with the blood of a Maute terrorist.

The lead organizer was a village chief in a blighted part of the city where domestic quarrel most often ends up with husbands nursing black-eyes fleeing the house like dogs with tails behind the legs to escape from the torture suffered from partners.

The village chief pitied the men and called for an ‘invitation-only’ powwow with the Takusas in a secret meeting, that of course was without knowledge of the household terrorists.

He explained that it was time for husbands to fight for their right and end the violence.

The powwow led to the creation of the Men’s Responsibility on Gender and Development (MR GAD). The acronym was not threatening but its secret mission was clear to the Takusas: MR GAD could be their liberation from Abu Sayyaf wives.

While the village chief condoled with the battered husbands, he told the Takusas that he could not do anything if no husband with a black-eye and murdered ego come to him to seek help.

His village of about 7,000 males is widely known as a war zone for domestic quarrels.

The village chief knows very well why battered husbands in his village do not seek his help.

Fear, according to the village chief who admits he too is a Takusa, explains why husbands keep their hell to themselves and endure the suffering at the hands of a satanic partner. 

He said there should be a law, like VAMC that MR GAD would push,  to ensure the protection of battered husbands from terrorist wives who have the blood of the Abu Sayyaf running in their veins and demonic brains.

Without the VAMC, the village chief advised that the Takusas have four options, if the wild woman of the house goes berserk:

  1. Remain in the house to endure the hell.
  2. Run to the barangay hall and hide behind the back of the barangay kapitan or a barangay tanod to protect against a pursuing al Qaeda bomber.
  3. Leave the house and flee to the top of Mt. Apo.
  4. Launch his own bloody counter-attack against the terrorist wife  which could lead him to VAWC  and a rat-infested cell at a police precinct.

Sad, however, that the last time we met, our Takusa village chief informed that MR GAD simply died a natural death because the terrorist wives learned about the impending rebellion of their punching bags.

Seriously, me think time is ripe that as women have their VAWC, the men should also have their VAMC.

Make my day, Madam Gabriela!

I volunteer to be the president of this crusade against the cruelty of women and the liberation of men, and the Takusas like me who want to join, raise your hand!

 

 

 

 

Comments

About the Columnist

Image of Roger Balanza

The author is publisher and editor of the Davao City-based online news site The Durian Post and Top News Now.