Belle Femme, Femme Fatale

“I think women rule the world and that no man has ever done anything that a woman either hasn't allowed him to do or encouraged him to do." Bob Dylan

The good doctor makes sense! He makes a good point about men being naturally more beautiful. To a woman, a man is considered the fairer sex is it not? We swoon over their physical god like appearance, which is achieved without makeup.

The thing is though, women are not frivolous creatures. Our brains are capable of processing more than just physical appearance. We don't need a man to put on makeup to be attracted to them. Yes, it is fun to ogle at good looking guys, but when it comes down to someone you want to actually be with, it really isn't about physical appearance. It's about personality, about how a guy carries himself. We're generally attracted to guys who're funny, sweet, caring and genuine. We find a certain something about them to be endearing. A man can be the best looking thing on earth to a woman based on only his personality; the looks are just a bonus.

But for those pea-brains, looks are a requirement. And let's face it, while we women are independent, strong, confident in our skins and totally capable of being by ourselves, loneliness kind of sucks. It's much better going through life with a companion. A man won't even look at you twice if you're, as they say, 'ugly'. Guys have even been known to dump girls for not being 'good looking enough' for them.

So is it fair for men to create the standards of how women should look, break down their confidence if they don't look that certain way, and then say 'we're better looking because we don't wear makeup. You are insecure because you do'?

We are smart, we don't use makeup to hide our natural beauty, we use it to enhance it; to express ourselves creatively all the while capturing the attention of a man.

Let's talk about insecurity for a second, are we really the ones who are insecure? We choose to give our male counterparts the illusion of power because we know how a man needs his ego to be stroked. He needs to be the one in charge. The lion may have the mane, but the lioness does the hunting while he just sits on his furry behind. So it's not just us human females, even the animal kingdom has wizened up to the fact that the male needs to feel important. They need to huff and puff around with their showy manes and peacock feathers and silver streaks and feel like they are the kings, while we quietly do all the work and, eventually, take over the world. Are we really the ones who are insecure? Or are we just diabolically smart?

By Musarrat Rahman

The week in re(ar)view

Traffic versus education
Dhaka city traffic is coming to a standstill. We didn't know it was moving at all because we have not moved more than two inches since we entered Dhanmondi Road 27 last Friday. To make the suffering a little less insufferable, the government has asked all schools and colleges closed for over a month. If it works, it means the country's education system has to go for good. It's the only way we will get home.

Weird math at energy ministry
Also, our CNG supply is less than the demand. Common sense solution would be to find ways to up the production. Uncommon sense says close down pumps between 3:00pm and 9:00pm so people buy less gas for their cars. Someone said it will save nearly 40 million cubic feet of gas a day, improving power generation up to around 200 megawatt. Meanwhile, the energy ministry has decided to cut each power outage down to half an hour. However, this does not mean that the total hours of daily load shedding would reduce. How does all this add up? We've had an easier time figuring out the value of pi to the last digit.

Connected by cracks
The country's longest Bangabandhu Multipurpose Bridge isn't as great as it's cracked up to be. Mainly because it is cracked in several places. The 4.8-kilometre bridge, connecting the country's northern region with the capital over the Jamuna River, developed numerous cracks in 2006, just nine years after it had opened to public in 1997. The communications ministry could not select a contractor for the job, although it had invited tender thrice. The Tk 4,000 crore bridge has an expected lifespan of 100 years to withstand all the chickens that cross it. Trucks, cars and other heavier things crossing it is a different matter. Will it make it to the 100 year birthday? Will we?

DOB, not quite
Last Sunday was our National Mourning Day where black banner, gates and other dark matter went up remembering the loss of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. Elsewhere, opposition Leader and BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia was celebrating her birthday. Except the birth date is apparently fake.

Women lawmakers protested this celebration of a fake party in front of the National Press Club in the city. They said this was mean minded. We say the lady leader really likes to have her cake and eat it too.

By Mood Dude and Someone

A night for the Poet

British Council and Journey Communications jointly hosted a cultural event titled “Rabindra Borishone” to commemorate the anniversary of Rabindranath Tagore's passing on the 9th of August at the British Council auditorium. The “borsha”-themed event opened with a performance of members of Surabihar, a music and arts school located at Dhanmondi. This was followed by duets and solo performances by prominent musicians such as Onima Roy and Azizur Rahman Tuhin.

After the mesmerising display of vocal prowess, the Young Learners' Club [YLC] of British Council came to the stage one by one to present poetry recitals and solo songs. The courage with which the young ones took the stage and the flawless execution of their performances are a testament to their hard work and passion. The event was concluded with a viewing of a Choyonika Chowdhury directed Rabindranath Tagore story-turned-drama titled “Dui Bon” or Two Sisters.

The program was conducted with the assistance of Creations Unlimited. Tanveer Tareq Consultancy played the role of the co-ordinator and Radio Today was the media partner.

By Kazim Ibn Sadique