Are we better on our own or are we better with each other?
For centuries and decades, both men and women have always become heated topics of discussion, especially when it is related to gender roles, capabilities, relationships, responsibilities, advantages, and disadvantages — causing us to become extra competitive with each other.
There is even a belief saying that men and women can’t work together as a team without any passion or affection involved between each other — and this belief has become a heated debate for centuries.
But what if men and women can be a great team with each other with or without being in a love relationship?
Beforehand, I would like to share a story that was shared by SC Shekar, a renowned photographer, and photojournalist who hosted a photo documentary exhibition a couple of months ago — which has inspired me to write this short article.
A few months ago, I was invited to a photo documentary exhibition hosted by a very talented and renowned photographer, and photojournalist, SC Shekar. It was a great and inspiring exhibition, as he shared a lot of insightful knowledge and his personal experiences regarding his journey in the creative industry as a photographer, photojournalist, and also writer.
During the event, he shared with us a story, about a conversation he had back in the 80s, with a middle-aged woman he met in a rural village in Myanmar for his photo documentary project.
While taking his rest at a shed, the woman randomly expressed her thoughts to him(SC Shekar), of how envious she is of men, and if there’s any chance she could choose which gender to be born to, she would like to be born as a man instead of a woman.
The thoughts of this woman made him, SC Shekar curious, but he also assumed that perhaps, it was because of the lack of freedom and opportunities women had during that time(Asia in the 80s) as the reason why she felt that way. With curiosity, he asked her, “Why would like to be a man? Is it because of the freedom that man has?” But surprisingly that is not the answer. Instead, she replied that she wanted to be a man because of how a man’s brain works, and the logical thinking of a man.
“I’m so envious of how a man’s mind works, you guys can think more straightforwardly and rationally, and even more focused than us, women. We, women, have so many complicated wires affecting our brains that somehow our thoughts and minds become less focused, and not as straightforward as how man’s mind always works. As women, we are great at multitasking but then too often, we tend to overthink things. We think too much at one time, consciously and subconsciously. Even on making decisions about simple things, I tend to think about everything including things that are not even related or happening yet — or clouded with unrelated emotions. Most of the time, I need my husband to remind me not to get distracted or to come back to the main point, and as always he helped me a lot to think more clearly”.
In silence, while listening to the story, I concluded — that both men and women need each other and will be able to conquer much greater achievements if we work together as a team. Instead of being the arch nemesis to one another and constantly in a battle of ‘who does it better’, regardless of business or relationship situations.
As a woman myself, I have to admit that women are more intuitive and creative than men, which causes us to think beyond the ‘logical thinking frame’, as we are more in tune with our emotions and more creative due to our ‘dreamy-fantasy mind like state’ that has been naturally built in our feminine psychology — while men, on the other hand, are more prone to the logical sides of things and less tied up with emotional influence when it comes to any decisions or solutions.
“As human beings, we are born imperfectly perfect with unique differences and unable to fully live our lives without making any mistakes”.
Perhaps that’s why most organizations and businesses that have both men and women as their top management leaders are always able to tackle issues more profoundly and creatively. It’s because the way they conducted the business is a mixture of men's and women's strengths combined; in much logical, analytical, emotional, creative, and intuitive thinking. Which, resulted in having a lot more profound solutions and ideas in problem-solving and decision-making.
But of course, these powerful collaborations can only be achieved without the disruption of self-ego and the vicious influence of personal issues (eg: insecurities, narcissism, trust issues, bad past experiences, etc), which both men and women are guilty of having.
Examples of these excellent results, such as; Facebook (Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg), Oracle (Safra Catz and Larry Ellison), Tapestry Inc. (Joanne Crevoiserat and Todd Kahn), Royal Dutch Shell (Ben van Beurden, and Jessica Uhl), and many others organizations.
Just like how a strong family foundation is formed — a kid can develop a much healthier growing-up process by having a man and woman as the parents(a well-matured adult, of course). Even though a man can play both roles as a father and mother to a child, which is the same as a woman can be. But the dynamic would tend to be a little bit different, than having both a man and a woman in their own father-mother roles.
After all, as human beings regardless of gender, we all have our own advantages and disadvantages as an individual. We have to remember that as human beings we are born imperfectly perfect with unique differences and unable to fully live our lives without making any mistakes. Due to that reason, as humans, we will always need each other; both men and women to continue living and striving in this life.
Lastly, whoever you’re reading this, I hope you do love yourself wholly (the perfect and imperfect of you) and are always open to sharing the love you have in you with the world — regardless of any differences in belief or in anything. Our world does need more love to fight against the ongoing hatred.
I hope you enjoyed reading this post and you may share any thoughts or comments in regards to this post in the comment box below.
Lots of love, Asya Zane.
