I feel quite privileged to inhabit a world that is fast changing in all living respects. I agree, though, it is hard to keep up sometimes. Many even left behind in the rat race. But this high spirited age has paved the path for major modifications. It has motioned an upbringing of ideas that have knocked out the primitive and the pertinently worthless. So can I safely say now that a phenomenon like gender differences and biases is a fact of yesteryears?

The validity of this questionable assumption heavily rests on value laden judgments more than objective facts. The choice ultimately is to walk in hand with either one or fuse them into a cocktail of dualistic reality.

Christening my opinions collectively as the forward force, I appeal to live in the 'here and now'. Revolution has long begun, even though concrete results may still be pending. And the present scenario only boasts of the long standing struggles of history.

The fine line dividing men and women that existed in the occupational scene is faintly visible now. From women filling our gas tanks to men in thongs with dollars flapping out of it, both sexes have the liberty of choice.

The waves of Feminism are roaring louder with its gradual assimilation in everyday thinking. The understanding of Freudian psychoanalysis is incomplete without the knowledge of his ardent admirer and pupil, Karen Horney's deviating principles.

We have witnessed women's liberation movements exposing bitter home truths that formerly cried out for a public address. Now a homemaker knows that the housewife living next door could be the one out of every five who suffers daily abuse at the hands of her beloved.

I see this as a period of enlightenment. The skeletons are finally out of the closet. Attribute this to the spread of democracy or globalization of markets and popular trends, but the outcome has been largely positive.

It doesn't, obviously, change the clear and present danger.

I know there is every possibility (if not more) of being a victim to a sexual crime. But my woes will now be heard. More than that, it will be processed; be it through a judicial system or via an attempt at social reformation. And this impact will slowly but surely initiate the real and permanent changes; the kind that have been long awaited. Now my potential rapist would think twice in the lines of a potential capital punishment or public exposure, courtesy the media.

But don't judge or dispose me as being delusional in optimism. I am not oblivious to the flip side.

I very well know that being a single mother is still much tougher and less marveled than being a single dad.

A woman no longer a virgin is no longer marriage material. Hence gynaecologists are making bundles through "re-stitching" her hymen!!

Too many women have internalized archaic adherence so well that they turn against their own kind. Women, in fact, are far more rigid in compliance with the said social sanctions than men, the actual beneficiaries. This is why female foeticide still makes it in the front pages. That is why mothers feel the greater responsibility in the nurturance of the offspring.

"A feminist is most likely to be a lesbian. And lesbians are born out of an abusive childhood past", this is what a ten year old would gather from a movie like Girlfriend.

And when I make these sweeping statements, I don't make the implication that men are responsible. Not solely, at least. The fairer sex, as they say, is the other hand that claps together to applaud the misgivings.

My recluse in this mayhem stays with the idea of accepting that gender stereotypes will continue to exist. Only we must know better, i.e., to look beyond. So while most receptionists are women, they're as capable to drive auto rickshaws; just as we accept men evenly as bus attendants or bartenders.  

Women, in their turn, should aim for an optimal reality. It is only foolish to picture a world where men will turn a blind eye to a woman baring her cleavage. That is only an elusive dream, much like the kingdom of heaven.

But what can be realistically achieved is to diminish the excuse of, "boys will be boys". They ought to grow up, anyway.

Eve was created from a part of Adam. But she's not in debt of him. She is, indeed, his better half. And in all fairness, God would be a hermaphrodite.