Yes I do

_{Photo by Jon Tyson}

I've always said it that when it comes to equality, it is a very sensitive topic because of how easily people's emotions gets triggered when the topic is being discussed. Unfortunately (or fortunately), it happens to be today's contest topic in the Hive Learners community, so we have to talk about it.

Unfortunately, I don't think there's a simple yes or no answer when it comes to equality, especially from where I come from. You see, before the Internet was invented, back in the day when people did things according to the customs and traditions of their land and not the western way, there were certain things that weren't even up for discussion and one of them was equality.

And this is because a lot of traditions automatically places the man on top. But then the Internet came and through the help of smartphones and other gadgets, people can now see how the westerns live their life and they try to imitate them because for some reason, everyone thinks that the western way is the right way. So we copied a lot of good things and also a lot of bad things, and it turned out that one of the things that were copied was Equality.

Now as a man who didn't grow up during the days where customs and traditions were the law and were fully obeyed, do I think equality is possible, yes. But you see, thinking it's possible and actually making it possible are two different things.

Whenever the equality topic arises between I and my female friends, I always tell them that the only reason they want equality is because they're always thinking only about the positive things that comes with it. Things like equal payment and all of that, but whenever I start to talk about them actually putting in the same amount of work most men do, they start to talk about how somethings are naturally a man's job.

And the funny thing is that most times, I do agree with them. There are somethings out there that are indeed a man's job, we don't even need people to tell us that. The other day at school, we had gone to this workshop for some practical class and there was no power supply at the workshop, so the lecturer had to turn on the generator. He stopped and picked two guys (I and someone else), and asked us to help carry the generator out from his workshop, down to where he was going to turn it on.

Now he easily could have asked the ladies there to help him carry it, I mean it's a generator and doesn't weigh that much. But he didn't because to him, why ask the ladies and watch them struggle when he could ask the guys instead and they would lift it up as if it was nothing. It's like going on a road trip with your friends (two boys and two girls), and then while driving, you guys discover that there's a huge tree log across the road, and the only way you can drive past it is if you removed the log from the road.

Automatically, the two guys would step out of the vehicle and try lifting the log even if it's too heavy for them, they would do it anyway, while both of the ladies would remain in the car, probably screaming words of encouragement to them while filming the whole thing on their phones.

That has always been the way life works, and everyone was fine with it, they were cool with men doing all the hard labour and stuff but the moment they started hearing about the benefits that came with those labours, they got furious and now want to get those same benefits without actually putting in the same amount of work as the men.

Do I believe everyone is created equal? Of course I do. But until we actually agree to really be equal and put in the same amount of work the other person is putting in other to get the benefits they're getting and not trying to get free passes because of our gender, equality might never fully be accomplished.