Men behaving badly? Blame it on neglect of boy-child

Women have come a long way. To borrow street parlance, wametoka mbali! Some time back, you would swagger into a bar, summon the barmaid and order for beer.

As she walked away, you would, just for fun, grab a big chunk of her chubby posterior and release it as you complimented her, saying “good stuff”, and you would get away with it. Interestingly, in return, she would blush and give you a welcoming smile.

Today, my friend, try that nonsense at your own risk! Also, back then, women were not allowed in the bar, except barmaids and prostitutes.

Today, women have invaded the bar, and yell orders louder than men. Wee-wee, stop staring at my boobs, leta beer hapa! You hear them.

Men can no longer be men; curse, swear, yell and shout obscenities or even crack a dirty joke without being pinched your nose, sneered at or called an idiot!

You also can’t, like we used to do back in the day, sheepishly stare at the barmaid’s perky milk boxes or her ample backside without women giving you ‘that look’.

Put differently, women are more empowered. They get what they want. I mean, they have sent fashion designers back to the drawing board to invent unisex clothes and shoes. Heck, we even now have unisex underwear, just imagine!

Women are so empowered that a 13-year-old girl can treat a grown man to seductive mischief — winks and all — making him nervous and shyly blush to no end.

I mean, today women have the guts to seduce and even marry men. That some even help their husbands to pay dowry and some are sole breadwinners in their households explains their economic empowerment.

Presently, when a woman is ripe for marriage and no man hovers around her with interest, she will find one she’s thinks is attractive and responsible and drag him to the nearest VCT. If she finds you clean (read negative), she’ll drag you to her home. Before you know it, you are a father and a husband.

Tuned by woman

The other day at my local, a woman tried that joke on me by complimenting my shoes. As I was still blushing, she complimented my leather jacket.

 By the time she was asking for my phone number, she was talking to my disappearing back! I fled. Me? Get tuned by a woman? Get lost!

The boy-child is less educated. The few educated ones who get jobs, can’t get promotions that easily. For some woman to be promoted, all they need to do is accompany the boss on a ‘fact-finding mission’, ‘study tour’ or ‘seminar’ out of town (if you know what I mean), and voila!

For interns, unlike young men, most females are retained because in every office, we have a rogue boss who strictly adhere to the mantra, ‘no intern shall be left unturned’, and turning them they do, in exchange for jobs.

Unfortunately, the boy child doesn’t have such privileges; there are way too few sufficiently immoral female bosses to take boys on ‘fact finding missions’ or ‘seminars’ in exchange for promotions.

Just the other day, we had the International Men’s Day. No fanfair, media frenzy, Cuban cigars or exotic wine to celebrate and empower the boy-child.

The boy-child grows up a rejected person. He becomes irresponsible. And generally a bad man.

When they marry, for instance in parts of Central Kenya, they are clobbered by their wives over inability to take care of their families, provide food, and particularly the other ‘food’ for their wives.

Without education, the only jobs they qualify for are those whose only qualification is muscle! So idle that these maladjusted men kill time by appointing themselves fashion police.

They have little exposure and are so poorly socialised they have no qualms harassing and abusing women for entertainment (and get away with it because our security is joke)!

And after neglecting the boy-child, someone still wants to know why men are behaving badly? Go figure!