Tuesday 15 July 2014

Fair Play

It was such such an refreshing site to see Dilma Rousseff and Angela Merkel in the VIP box of World Cup final!

No, I'm not a fan of either of them. But at least they brought some balance to the otherwise hopelessly male dominant gala fest of power, money and muscle!

From players, to coaches, support stuffs, FIFA officials, even the vast majority of reporters and photographers....it was such an overwhelming male dominance to everything that were important!


It's not the World Cup Football for men...it is THE World Cup.
All women's sports of course always comes with the tag "for women".

If aliens had watched the clippings from the prize distribution arena, they would've thought us to be a species without sexual dichotomy! Other decorative elements such as those Emirates hostesses standing behind with plastic smiles fixed permanently into their lovely lips....could easily be mistaken as aesthetically designed robots.

Two other middle aged, bald, male politicians would have blended so well with the scene, if not for these two ladies! May be I'm too optimistic, but at least to me it symbolized an world where the power dynamics are changing...slowly, but surely!

You can no longer ignore the "weaker sex" even in high testosterone activities such as the world cup football final; where traditionally the "fairer sex" would only be used as show piece elements like those bubbly-bouncy cheer leaders.

Now suddenly you have two feisty ladies at the center...with the power and importance to actually distribute the mega prize! And they didn't even have to be any important man's daughter/wife/widow to be there; they earned it themselves through years of professional rigor.

Surely the world is changing! Just wait till Ms. Clinton joins the gang!

Once again, I'm not a Clinton supporter; yet the prospect of having an woman at helm of the most powerful nation makes me a little excited.

Some people believe that an world led by women will be a much better place to live in; as women, according to them, are more compassionate and nurturing. This I find almost as stupid as any other stereotypes like "men have aptitudes for technology and women for fine arts".

I don't believe that women leaders...as a generic category....will be any better than their male counterparts. You just can't attribute characteristics...good or bad...which will be true for all the members of any gender.

There will be good woman leaders and bad ones; possibly more bad than the good ones; just as we have had with male ones.

It'll not make the world any better;just a little fairer!

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