Women challenging women...

by Nadira GUNATILLEKE

Are you a woman ? May be you are a young girl or one in your adolescence. You may belong to one of the categories I am going to describe here. Think which category you belong to. You may hate yourself for being in the wrong category or you may hate me for identifying and analyzing your category ! But the bitter truth is all women belong to some sort of category. This is not about some women in one social class or one profession. It is about all types of women everywhere. So you do not need to worry. What we all need to be worried about is the quality of Sri Lankan women. It is because they are the reflection of our country, our valuable culture, traditions and especially social ethics.

Do you know that it is women who challenge women most of the time ? No matter who challenges whom or how they are going to be challenged.

One woman or a group of women challenges another woman or a group of women in order to gain something. Most of the times it is the attention of the opposite sex ! Women do not challenge other women just to win the attention of males. They never stop there. The next step is using what they won to gain something else ! Something more....something good....

International Women's Day comes and goes. We celebrate it with ceremonies, competitions and many more programs. Sometimes we offer awards for some women who had shown their talents and bravery. We talk about all the good qualities. How about the bad qualities of women ? Why cannot we talk about them ? What stops us from discussing the bad qualities of women ? But all of us agree with one fact. That is criticism should be constructive. The real critics always point out both plus and minus points of an entity. So why see only beauty, kindness, tender and flowery side all the time when there is an ugly, harsh and thorny side as well ? No one can call this `being pessimistic' !

Here comes the first category of women ! Check whether you belong to this category. These women are the real challenge to any woman / women. They are well-educated, well-qualified and well-trained on the job no matter what they are doing at present. They are very talented too. They are feminine, pretty and sexy. They go everywhere they want and get away with whatever they need. No matter who throw what type of challenges at them. Although they are pretty and sexy, they do not need to `use' those things to gain certain things. It is because they have the education, qualifications, experience and talent. Males are `not existing' for them !

Then comes the second category. They have nothing but the beauty and an attractive body with a little bit of talent. That is more than enough for them to gain things ! They can face any challenge with those two lethal weapons. They always win the main challenge, winning the attention of the opposite sex very easily. There is no competition at all for them. They get away with, use the attention they get and acquire most of the other things quickly and easily. If they are cunning enough, they do not need to `sacrifice' anything in order to gain opportunities and benefits. But sometimes their lack of `64 Maayams' force them to sacrifice minor things in order to gain major things ! But the women who belong to this category do not care about it at all.

Here comes the most dangerous....third and last category ! What do you think ? What type of women belong to this category ? Do they need to worry about their reputation ? No, not at all. It is because they do not have a reputation ! This category has almost nothing with them.

They are not pretty at all,not feminine and not even kind and tender.

They face all challenges with no weapons at all. But you may not believe....they win every challenge they face without any competition at all ! They have only one thing for their advantage. You cannot call it `something' because biologically the female body belongs to each and every woman in this world. But they get away with everything using this incredible `weapon' (may be with a little bit of brain) !

Motherhood is the main shield used by women against any type of challenge. Especially the women who belong to the third category I just described, always seek the protection of motherhood whenever they face trouble. They do whatever they want and get away with whatever or whoever they need and at last get the cover of motherhood whenever they are being confronted. The funniest and most hilarious part is not that. The women belonging to third category seek the shelter in womenhood when they face trouble. They use their womanhood as their only weapon to gain things and use the same as their shelter at the same time ! Here there is one plus point. It is, if they do this with another woman (superior to them) they never get away without paying for their dirty acts / offenses. But unfortunately they can get away with anything if they face a male superior !.

The breed of women who belong to the third type is a very clear threat to our valuable culture, traditions and social ethics.

Because they do not care for anything especially about the Sri Lankan culture, traditions and social ethics. They do not promote any of them. What they do is, destroying themselves and encouraging other women to do the same. They never teach their daughters how to grow up as a real Sri Lankan citizens because they never did it themselves. Motherhood is just a shield for them. Children are another tool or `tactic' for them to be used in order to avoid trouble or escape from trouble.

This story is not about one place...one person...one occasion or one social class! It is about each and every human being. No matter who you are, where you are or what you do, it can be your own experience at any time.

Maybe you have already experienced / practised what I have just mentioned ! May be you are planning to practise it to win your next target or going to be experienced soon because of the new `lady' just joined your family / workplace / group of friends.

No matter what type of problem we face we have our own ways of facing and beating them.

But how about protecting the image of our country ? It is women who should do it and who should teach children how to do it.