My Experience the other day. Kinda long though, but just try and read.
I arrived PHCN office to pay our electricity bill, towards noon, after an exhausting morning. I had few persons ahead of me so I had to patiently wait till my turn.
When it was finally almost my turn to get attended to, a beautiful lady(probably in her early twenties) walked into the building and approached me. She was really damn sexy, many guys would crave a conversation with her, but I was just too tired to yearn for such.
"Pls, can you let me go in before you", she muttered.
"I'm sorry I'm in a hurry, stand behind me", I replied.
Just to justify the declination, I asked her if she wasn't feeling fine or if she had an emergency to attend to, which she answered "No, I just want to do quick and go, so i can meet up my favourite TV show".
I was sincerely abashed. "I'm sorry I can't help you", I calmly reiterated.
"I'm a woman na, just pity me please, or don't you have sisters?", she insisted.
I was honestly tempted to ignore her, however, I just couldn't help but react.
"Madam, favours should be granted to all humans irrespective of gender; You have to 'merit' a favour, before you get it; I won't grant you a favour simply because you're a woman, so go to my back and form a queue", I enunciated.
One of my biggest pet-peeves is when I see a woman who is meant to be an advocate of an unprejudiced society, try to take advantage of patriarchy to get favours and attract pity from the male folks. By professing that you should be pitied because you're a woman, you start the problem you're trying to combat in the first place- which is placing one gender above the other.
Women should be regarded and respected just like every other human. If a woman steals, she should be treated like a thief; If she acts responsibly, she should be treated responsibly. Womanhood shouldn't be an object of pity; we all have our struggles.
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So, next time you want any aid or succor, don't try to play the victim card, by involving your gender in your plea. It may work on some people, but not me. I allot favours when you truly deserve them, irrespective of your gender.
The insistence that women be esteemed or pitied simply because they're women, is a problem in the quest for gender parity. This idea COULD make them complacent with a lack of zeal, and expectant of what a much more hardworking man deserves.
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In the end, I guess she perceived me as a bad person afterall 🤷.