“Women! What could you say? Who made ’em? God must have been a fuckin’ genius. The hair… They say the hair is everything, you know. Have you ever buried your nose in a mountain of curls … just wanted to go to sleep forever? Or lips … and when they touched yours were like … that first swallow of wine … after you just crossed the desert.”

That’s the character (a certain Lieutenant-Colonel Frank Slade) of Al Pacino in the 1992 film Scent of a Woman. The performance gave Pacino his first and only Oscar win. He had been nominated several times, which explained the quip he emotionally uttered when he was handed the statuette: “You broke my streak,” he said. I recommend the film.

The point here is that Slade is right about women, even though what he’s saying is but one commendable characteristic of women … among countless. As poems are so wont to do, this feeling too is expressed better and more eloquently through that medium, in this case through the words of Louise Bogan’s poem Women: “Women have no wilderness in them, / They are provident instead, / Content in the tight hot cell of their hearts / To eat dusty bread.”

We all know, love and cherish or have known at least one such woman in our lives, which does not inhibit us from knowing, loving and cherishing one such man. The thing is that women must face — must overcome — more odds than men ever will or ever have. Indeed, men do have it made in this world.

Another reason is perhaps because women are specifically structured not just to bring children into the world but also to protect, nurture and raise them. They can be strong, and they can be resilient. I’m not talking about bicep-and-six-pack strength here but about nonphysical power, which women need in order to overcome the many challenges hurled in their direction. As a married man with children, someone in our home often reminds me that because I’m male, I could never have stomached period pains and I could never have tolerated labour pains, to which I can’t and won’t disagree. As poet Mick Raubenheimer’s poem Femme points out, and I paraphrase, women bloom, and have the power to touch colour, scent, and the gravity of beauty.

Read more in Daily Maverick: There are many avenues to address gender inequality – the Budget is one

There are noticeable (some much less noticeable) biological differences between men and women, but the extent to which these differences define patterns of behaviour and character is debatable. Many qualities traditionally considered to be of one sex can be found in individuals of different gender identities, and these differences are thought to be the result of socialisation, rather than character traits made and guided by genetic instructions.

Disclaimer: This is not an attempt to diss the male relatives of our species; it is a crack at appreciating and celebrating the female members of that species. 

Women are breaking out of the kitchen and are taking over the world, at last. To me, and I think I shouldn’t be alone on this one, that is a blinking relief. It’s like the world suddenly realised that it is being driven over a cliff by a bunch of old geezers at the wheel, and that it is now time a fresher generation from the better half of the human species was brought in. Women are indeed the better half. And that is why empowering them actually does tend to advance society.

The idea is not just a question of justice and equality, but an essential factor in achieving sustainable development and social progress for all. Excuse me, but I’m not seeking to be pleasant here. When women are empowered, societies prosper and reap a multitude of benefits. Owning a pair of balls gives men testosterone, which is nothing more than a chemical messenger. The following are some of its accomplishments: it helps the penis and testicles to develop, it deepens the voice at puberty, it helps facial and pubic hair to grow, it boosts muscle growth and it is instrumental in the production of sperm. These are qualities that men must have to be able to hunt (strong muscles), frighten enemies (deep voice and hair), etc., the same way a male lion needs them.

If we empowered women, here’s what we’d get: first, we’d have economic growth, because women are more likely to invest in education and in health, and to plough back into their communities, which leads to increased productivity and income generation for all.

Second, we would get better education, because learned women are more likely to educate their children, creating a cycle of improved education for future generations.

Third, we would benefit from better health and well-being because women’s greater autonomy is often linked to improved health prospects. And the list goes on and on. The importance of this next point, mind you, should never be overlooked: we would get social stability, which would bring about peace, because as numerous studies suggest, societies where gender equality and women’s empowerment are sounder tend to be more stable and peaceful, because women often play a pivotal role in conflict resolution. For millennia, the beauty bestowed upon women has been admired, and exploited. It is time we celebrated it, together with the assets and talents that most women possess.

But instead, what do most men do? We deride them and belittle them and tell them to “go back to the kitchen” whenever they try to assert themselves. We violate them — in one of the vilest and most heartless acts our species can’t keep itself from performing. We beat them up in front of their children. If women have come a long way, men have a longer way to go. DM

Rethabile Masilo is a Mosotho poet from Lesotho who lives in Paris, France.

Women

By Louise Bogan

Women have no wilderness in them,

They are provident instead,

Content in the tight hot cell of their hearts

To eat dusty bread.

They do not see cattle cropping red winter grass,

They do not hear

Snow water going down under culverts

Shallow and clear.

They wait, when they should turn to journeys,

They stiffen, when they should bend.

They use against themselves that benevolence

To which no man is friend.

They cannot think of so many crops to a field

Or of clean wood cleft by an axe.

Their love is an eager meaninglessness

Too tense, or too lax.

They hear in every whisper that speaks to them

A shout and a cry.

As like as not, when they take life over their door-sills

They should let it go by.

Femme

By Mick Raubenheimer

and all around were these women

these beings drawn in lazy lines of curve

and bloom

who move thru space

tugging

mysteriously

at colour

and

scent…

the gravity of beauty!

This story first appeared in our weekly Daily Maverick 168 newspaper, which is available countrywide for R29.