Women have significantly earned their place in the society, after years of being viewed as the lesser gender.Some countries in the world have women for presidents, Germany has a female chancellor, Britain has a female Prime minister and, Yahoo has a female C.E.O. Despite all the achievements made by women-both in career and politics, issues of gender superiority still form part of our conversations. We’ve come a long way to do away with the folklore, that a woman isn’t good enough for high office. Recent occurrences have shown, most people still subscribe to the primordial instinct that portrays women, as a gender of less worth. A woman who strays out of the society’s moral arc is castigated to the dungeons. On the other hand, a man exhibiting the same kind of moral decadence is easily let off the hook. Recent debates between men and women seeking political office, have shown the real dynamic of gender superiority in the society.
The interview between Miguna Miguna and Esther Passaris, highlighted how even the most cultured of men, secretly hold an intriguing disdain for women in power. Quoting Miguna Verbatim “Esther is so beautiful, everybody wants to rape Esther. You are not beautiful Esther, it’s just the color”. Miguna was sarcastic but, the rape subject does not appreciate sarcasm(read Kiraitu).I’ll therefore disagree with Miguna on two fronts.
First, Contrary to public perception, the feeling of being beautiful solely exists in the mind of the beheld and, not the beholder.
Second, beautiful women are wooed and, not raped.There’s no point of being sarcastic about it.
While Miguna’s remarks attempted to paint Passaris as a woman of little honour, his choice of words underscored his lazy understanding of the same. I’m not privy to details of Esther’s personal life, but I do not think her camaraderie with Men (genuine or not) should be a subject in the race for Nairobi’s gubernatorial seat. The ridicule went unabated to the chagrin of viewers. Rape was glorified and humorised. It was disparaging to insinuate Esther would be a willing participant in rape ordeals meted against her.The state of a woman’s family is often used to gauge her leadership potential.This is hogwash considering marriage is a union between a man and a woman,anyone might start the tango.
I have nothing against Miguna. Infact, I think he would make a better governor than Passaris.He was a victim of gender superiority and sadly,not the only one. KNUT’s secretary general-Mr. Sossion, is on record for making unflattering remarks about Hon. Laboso’s quest, for Bomet’s gubernatorial seat. I’ll quote, “Someone tell Joyce on my behalf to go and vie for the governorship in Kisumu. She is now a daughter of that land because they already paid us bride price.” Another case of a thinly disguised misogyny, from a male public figure. What appeared as a harmless phrase, was in fact a wave of the middle finger to women empowerment. If paying bride price is buying wives, then Kenya is a nation of insurmountable human trafficking abilities. Bride price should never be inferred as the buying of another human being. This might have been the case before, but we can’t get 21st century education yet continue to think like citizens of the 18th century. Despite Laboso being a formidable figure in Bomet politics, she keeps getting ‘attacked’, for marrying out of her tribe. How is her marriage more important than what she has to offer? This should be unheard of in 2016, where women have broader ambitions than being defined by their husbands’ persona.
There are many cases in the world where male leaders tolerate the idea of gender superiority. Debates involving women in politics, often degenerate to bickering, with emphasis laid on a woman’s style over substance. This leads to digression from pertinent issues, as the antagonists resort to character assassination. Respect and dignity should be inherent to both male and female politicians. Gender equality is a fundamental pillar of development hence,its time we did away with the fallacy that women are the weaker sex.
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