by Hoo Sze Yen

We’ve come into the third issue of Today, the first issue for this new semester. The previous editor, Chau 
Meng Huat had done an excellent job for the first two issues and I only hope I can live up to the high 
standards that he has set, if not better.
	What annoys me, however, is that some people find it amusing that a girl had taken up the 
chair - the kind of people who believe that girls aren’t suitable to hold a leadership post. They say that it’s 
okay for girls to be the vice, but not the president. I find it bitterly ironic, because not all of the said 
people are men. 
	Perhaps it was the environment they grew up in. I’m not talking about big cities or village 
areas, because to be frank, I myself come from what may be called a big city and several people there 
have this mindset too. For example, one of the clubs in my previous school had an election for the top 
two posts, and a guy and a girl had the same number of votes. The teacher advisor decided to make the 
call, and gave the presidency to the guy, simply because he’s a guy. 
	I’m not saying that the guy was incompetent; both are responsible and reliable as far as I can 
tell. But the reasoning behind the selection was utterly illogical. Shouldn’t the presidency have been given 
based on competency? Is it fair to say that guys are more competent than girls? Is it something in the 
Y-chromosomes that all girls lack, which immediately makes guys leaders over the fairer sex? 
	Since the creation of man, it has always been said that men are superior to women; they’re 
physically more able and supposedly have better mental prowess. The men get higher posts; or even for 
the same job, get higher pay than women do. This is exactly what today’s feminists are against - they’re 
trying to change this expired thinking. 
	Feminism is actually a very broad context, and there are many kinds of feminism. Basically, 
all feminists champion women’s rights. The difference is which rights they’re championing for and the 
methods they use. In fact, sometimes their ideas and views clash. For example, some believe in 
affirmative action to boost the women onto a level-playing field; yet there are some who believe that it 
degrades women because it proves that women are weaker and need help, plus it means that the women 
got to where they are not from their own effort, but from this privilege. Personally, I believe the issue is not 
whether or not it is agreeable, but whether or not it is necessary.
 	Admittedly some people take feminism too far. There are those insist on full equality 
recognition. I’m not saying that’s a bad thing (aren’t feminists out for equality?) But there are those who 
get insulted if the guy opens the door for them - hence the overall misconception of feminism. Opening 
doors, letting women walk first, and even helping them carry heavy parcels aren’t chauvinistic - it’s 
chivalry. It’s gentlemanly. Today’s modern ethics make most of these habits obsolete, but the idea is still 
sweet and it shows you respect the women. You’re not acknowledging them as helpless or inferior - 
haven’t you been to places where the doorman held the door open for you? Would you say that you’re 
helpless or inferior because he did that? 
	We have to acknowledge certain facts, that most men are definitely more able than women. 
Women can’t physically compete against men. That’s why they separate several of the sports 
categories into men’s and women’s games. However, I admit that there are girls who have proven to be 
better than guys - even I notice that there are several guys who can’t catch up with men when I walk my 
usual pace (which is really fast). 
	Some girls really refuse all help from guys, be it help with their baggage or whatnots. When 
my friends and I arrived in Butterworth, instead of hanging around the station for our train which wasn’t 
due for another six hours, we decided to leave out bags in the luggage store and go across to the island. 
A friend insisted that she can lift her own bag onto the high shelves by herself; I wouldn’t doing mine 
myself but I lacked the muscle tone she had long developed. So when our guy friend (whose help she 
refused) looked at me and asked, "Do you believe in feminism?" I thought, not in that context, so I said, 
"No" and handed him my bag. 
 
 
 
 
Hoo Sze Yen