Women are moody and complex.” Alex mumbled over lunch. We were discussing the tragedy of the extreme tourism expedition and why there were no women among the five explorers of the Titanic remains.
“This is one of the reasons why men die more than women.” I replied and before I could expound on testosterone, Alex repeated, “Women are complex.”
“What’s going on?” I asked, chuckling. The man was pensive and if I had not spoken, he would have reiterated the ‘women are complex’ line a third time. His wife had returned the gift he had bought her on her thirty-something birthday the previous week.
She even had an accompanying note attached to the unwanted gift. ‘Return to sender.’ She had then demanded money to get herself the gift that she preferred, to which he had obliged, but she was still mad at him.
“So, you think this is the reason why there were no women aboard the submersible to the Titanic exploration? That we are moody?” Jane asked him, to which Alex added, “Yea. They could have changed their minds halfway and decided to turn back.”
“And demanded their money back!” Philip added and the men burst out laughing. The joke was lost on us, the women at the table. If you are wondering why there were no women among the five, let me shed some light.
We embrace adventure as much as you. Only, we prefer a guarantee that we shall come out alive. We carry life in us, and we are careful to nurture and guard it as best as possible. We are a lot like the lioness.
Smaller in body size, agile but the deadlier of the species. In the jungle, the lioness is much more feared by prey, because it goes for the kill. It nurtures her king and her cubs. Do not be fooled by her seemingly, non-threatening cool stare. But she will not make the loud roar or climb a submersible just because she can. Heck, she does not even grow a mane to show off or strut her stuff as majestically as her male counterpart.
Women give minute details more consideration than the grand ones. In a war, a woman understands that you win by surviving, by coming out alive than by counting kills. This knowledge is the reason that makes a woman put up with a lot in a marriage relationship that a man would, ordinarily not tolerate. She is adept at choosing battles and will only leave the marriage if her safety or life and that of her offspring is threatened. She does not care about winning a fight, remember?
Women ask more questions that are related to survival than to the grand appearance or promise of any vessel, project, or deal. You are likely to sell land to a man with loose change, but a woman will ask a lot more questions like, “does this area flood during the rainy season?”
If we had more women engineers and architects, from early in the history of humankind, we would have had vastly different designs of machinery and structures. Safety and beauty would have been the foremost of considerations.
There are a zillion other fun and adventurous ways that a woman can conjure than to spend her money engaging in extremities. Sure, peer pressure from her man, son, brother can influence her decision, but often, we are less inclined to things like exploring thirty thousand feet below or above sea level. We appreciate that the higher levels of testosterone in our men helps reproduce and hence save humanity from extinction. Some men take it a notch higher by siring fifty children with fifteen women, but that is just show off.
Yes, testosterone is a reason why more men, than women, die. Sadly, it is the same reason why, in the human jungle, the male poses the most danger to his female counterpart. She is the most vulnerable to him because she trusts and lets down her guard with him. Yet, testosterone can work wonders if the male focused more on solving the problems of our world and home, than on being a super achiever.
Regarding Mrs. Alex’s gift, let us meet here next week and I will explain the saga.
