Blood, Guts And Glory

The female of the human species has always been deadlier than the male. Unhappily for the males though, their preconceived notion that women are weak, pliable and more emotional than intelligent gets them almost every time.

In many societies (especially in the southern hemisphere) young girls are raised to be polite with impeccable manners and constantly reminded by their maternal and paternal elders that they are the weaker sex.

Add to that the traditional idea that their success lies in finding the right husband and bearing him many sons, which gives the rest of the world the notion that these women make docile partners and the forced providers of unconditional love to their kith and kin.

Wrong! Scratch the surface and surprise, surprise…. Under those lovely faces lie fortified, determined steel that can make an iron man wince.

In Thailand, these lovely feminine, well-mannered lasses are bloodying their fortunes and kick boxing their way out of their poor rice farming communities.

Not unlike women every- where else in the world who, when challenged or put in a really tight corner, become resolute, strong-willed and victorious.

Reminds me of the time when the football coach of the high school where my daughter was enrolled said to her, "I won’t allow girls to play football, they cry when they are hurt and are intimidated by the stronger boys."

That did not stop her. She ens-ured that the so-called gender rule was broken; got on the team with two other girls and for the next season gave the coach and the jocks the hardest time of their lives and got the favour returned.

The girls were however never given forward positions and my daughter became the goalie.

The final match against an all boys’ team went into penalties and the ladies were the last in line. When the game was almost lost (presumably because it had girls in it) the three lovelies drove the ball into the goal one after the other to win the game for their team.

Did they celebrate afterwards? No. They quit the team despite the begging that they stay. They had made their point and moved on to join the basketball team which was mixed and had a female coach.