"Is gold digger a gender-biased terminology?" Facebook floods itself with descriptions that contradict the term's association with women and women only. The posts come with the argument of placing men on the fence of expectations. According to the posts, a triggering curiosity enlightens one's conscience. Can we expect a woman who will cook, wash, earn, manage for me, and also be the perfect mother? This node extends itself to another node, asking us, "Do modern women not do it all?" Modern women may be trying to manage it all on their own. Smooth is never the path leading to a challenge. Life itself is a motion that continues and evolves into greater difficulties. Men tend to have higher expectations from their gender counterparts and oblige them to attend to the world outside their abodes with religiously acceptable fashion while keeping up with the rising prices of products in the market, lack of money for enjoyment, and living a life below the radar of quality. In Dhaka, the talk is terrible. Outside Dhaka, the talk is worse due to women's dependency on their gender counterparts. Little can women argue about the same things to point out men's nature of dominance, which turns out to be less bendable amidst all the harshness of life. Defending women's viewpoints is considered to be unmanly by Bangladeshis as we continue to face rape cases, sexual abuse, and exploitation records, emphasising the deteriorating social and familial security of women. Even if a man is more participative in the duties involving family and society, it goes a long way to argue on the sentiments of being humane rather than being feminine. A man taking part in the duties that are typically expected of women in Bangladesh, such as cooking more regularly for family members, looking after other family members, and fulfilling social and religious duties, hardly gets to have a friendly, one-to-one emotional conversation about personal space, growth, admiration, and respect with the female members of the very family.
According to psychologists, deepened emotional responses to situations indicate a higher level of empathy, awareness, and appreciation than usual or typical standards. Sensitivity is one term to describe the situation. During Amar Ekushey Boi Mela this year, the scandal surrounding sanitary napkins indicates the devastating and obliterated perception of men in our country. No appropriate step was taken by the authority at the book fair to express the disgust buried in the occurrence. Bangladesh's population stands at around 172 million, and around 84 million women belonging to the identity of this country are destined by fate to face menstruation. However, the truth, being the loudest in form, is not recognised, addressed, or considered, and is publicly humiliating to become part of the culture by countrymen. Judging from the event, women are still galaxies and light-years away from getting and receiving the inclusive, humane treatments they deserve in this country of economic fluctuations inevitably affecting women and beyond. Facebook positions itself as a source of more occurrences that target women as the source of utmost negativity, with dandy men pointing out women's choices and actions that have nothing to do with coital set-offs but are, in plain sight, something completely different in motive. Bangladesh Women Lawyers' Association sheds light on the truth, yet further discomfort for the lot concerning themselves with women being the primary source of difficulties in the country. At least 82 per cent of women regularly face activities that put them in a sexually assaulting spot in places that are public, administrative, local, or private.
Drawing into Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs helps to understand and capture the requirements one seeks from phase to phase in a lifespan. The needs of tier 0, involving the requirement of food, shelter, clothing, sleep, breathing, and water, may barely get fulfilled by women in the country while we are desperately trying to rise beyond and above the grade of living as animals who avail of these things too. But there we are, desperately failing to ensure social, economic, and cultural security and safety for women. Our thoughts are nipped in the bud. Little does an intermediate student in the country know what sentiments and emotional absence lie in the wake of the events of rape, raped murder, sexual harassment, cultural and social harassment, and familial degradation targeted at women in the country. Citizens in their late teenage years, barely having any grounds for women's position or the eagerness to think about it, put the nation in a morally difficult situation. Do we need to start with the young ones to talk about women as human beings?
Societal reforms are heavily population-biased. Gone are the days of personal letter-writing, but we are still talking about women's needs as a reform much more required than ever before. The population, being a collection of multigrain human beings, drops us into opinions that do not serve women as human beings. The solution to this bias is one unitarily focused on the growth of this nation as a women-sustaining and inclusive one. As we navigate a women-unfriendly culture bred inside our motherland, we ought to remember Kahlil Gibran and use education as our way to navigate. Speaking more about the nature of women's natural processes, such as menstruation, premenstrual syndromes, and emotional and physical behaviour and attitude at different phases of life, in educational institutes will help spread awareness, raise empathy, and solidify conscience among the future leaders of the country. Stories and historical discussions about women's roles in culture, politics, family, and society will alleviate the scarf-bound, burkha-preconditioned, stay-at-home, job-constrained roles of women and help the youngsters see women more like human beings and not as entitled to norms and specificities of a typecast. Children's behaviour is shaped by external reinforcements. Education navigating the life cycle of a child until turning into an adult should come in age-accordance to deliver the learning. Starting at home and involving the more critical stages of female needs at stake is a requirement of today that has been kept away for too long. All men grown old will not necessarily feel the need for a sense of connection with their female counterparts. Other than expected duties, women need the labyrinth supporting their space for confidence, achievement, respect, individuality, morality, creativity, spontaneity, acceptance, and experience of purpose and meaning from their levels.
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