A Hot Cup of English Breakfast Tea ☕

Why?? 😭

This has been one hot weekend for me (is this where I say pun intended? 😁).

I've had to balance my regular weekend life with on and off arguments centered around Women should not be complimented beyond the words beautiful 😪.

So here is the meme that fuelled this conversation on my WhatsApp and lead me to publishing this post.

And while I was still trying to grasp the concept of whoever came up with this idea, I got hit with another meme 😭:

To avoid the constant back and forth with the supporters of these I decided to make a writeup.

So here's my take, we cannot keep misinterpreting (seemingly) genuine compliments from everyday people to mean we have become objects of their sexual fantasies. And just because there are douchebags of men in market places calling out women in sexist, derogatory remarks should not mean we are now not able to accept casual expressions/compliments on how we look.

I know there are a a lot of sick and frightening people out there (male and female) most of them educated and even in white collar jobs ( oh I should know, I had some of them as friends), supporting the act of rape / saying someone deserved  to be raped because she went out with friends at night. I know and see people's comments on things like these. 

But you can't take the actions of a few mentally unstable people as the norm, then call an emergency Annual General Meeting to spread the word for women not to accept casual remarks of being told they look good.

And we have now progressed to issuing decrees on what other men are allowed to call their own women again. 😭😭

I know they are memes, but the conversation shows they are being taken as the gospel 😭😭. "Sh'ogun l'aye yi ni"? (Is this life a war zone?)

Are we adding our personal beliefs into what feminism is?

Because I'll be damned if my first name ever reverts to being permanently called "Tola" 🤒🥴 just because other sweet names are dehumanizing to a woman 🤯

Isn't there a stage in getting to be acquainted with each other where you make known what you like and what you don't like.

While I may still be a newbie to this love, marriage and life long relationships thing... From my balcony, it sure looks like we can never stop discovering something new about each other. Not to talk of how we grow on ourselves.

So imagine having to over analyse and misinterpret the concept of gender balance/feminism into the relationships we build with everyday people 🤕💔.

Put love aside, and let's even talk about friendships with the opposite sex.

I have agreed that there are a billion and one dickheads out there, and most of them get turned on by how sickening and distasteful they treat women (and vice versa). And they are why these conversations are even spiralling out of its true context.

But hey, there's just one life to live, and it sure as hell is more complicated than we were made to believe when all we wanted to do was become an adult.

So let's live it without putting undue pressure on ourselves and complicating the relationships we have with people that care about us.
And not to forget, a little act of kindness goes a long way. 💕

I'll love to know your thoughts on this.

As for me, I remain a hot cup of English breakfast tea (as they're the best 😄☕)

Tola Abegunde