On Gender Discrimination

I am currently looking for a new room to rent. My current room is a nice and cozy place. But I have to move for very important reasons.

One Saturday, on my way to the work, I passed by a gate with a signage that says “Room for Rent.” I told myself, “This is perfect. This place is only about two and a half kilometers away from the office.” So I asked someone who was near the gate about the rooms. She said she can’t help me much about it. She asked me to enter the gate so I can talk to the owner of the place.

The front yard of the house is a bit messy. And the house itself is barely fair in condition.

When I was about to enter the house, I saw the owner. It was an old lady. However, when she saw who it was that was inquiring about the rooms, she told me outright that she does not accept males. That would have been fine and I would not have posted this entry in my blog, but she went on to say “I don’t accept males because I don’t have the strength to run in case a fight (or a brawl) breaks.”

Those words clearly illustrates that gender discrimination is not only against women as what most people think. Men (males) are victims as well.

Late last year, a good friend of mine – Anthonny, was looking for a room or apartment to rent. He searched almost everywhere in the city and was often times met with signages that say: “Rooms for Rent. Ladies Only” or ”We Accept Lady Lodgers” and others of similar contents. Out of his frustrations, he jokingly asked me, “Asa nalang man diay tang mga laki puyo ani, bro?”

Funny, but it is quite a serious problem.

I remember a class I had in ICU with Prof. Wasilewski (I hope I spelled it correctly). She is an anthropologist (I think. Maybe a psychologist or both). She presented a case in class. It was about Black American siblings. The sister was very successful. The brother on the other hand was almost a bum. Prof. Wasilewski then asked the class “Why do you think this is so?”

The class was lost. We all thought the question came out too soon. We felt we needed to hear of the underlying factors which led to the situation. But the professor said she had presented everything for us to answer the question.

When she figured out how lost the class was, she threw a few questions. They were to help us answer the previous one and she addressed them especially to the ladies in class. She said “If you are alone in an alley at night and a Black American woman comes your way, how would you feel?” There was a brief silence in the classroom when Prof. Wasilewski continued to ask, “But how would you feel if it was a Black American man (male) coming your way?

The answer to the first question became clear to us all. It was gender. Gender was the one factor as to why the brother has not even come close to what the sister has achieved.

Now, do you still think only women are discriminated?