The "Proposal" Question

Should a woman propose to a man? The youths of Makerere Full Gospel Church debated this question last Sunday. To some, the idea of a beautiful woman going on bended knee to pop the question to the man of her dreams would be exhilarating, and to others, revolting.  

Does it really matter who pops the question?

One young man argued: "Feminists like to say whatever a man does, a woman can do even better. Let them get better at proposing to us too!" Of course such arguments drew prolonged hilarity, but more importantly they got me examining the relationships I know, have read or heard about. And my conclusion: today's women have taken over the dating world and are the ones proposing to us, even though it has not robbed us of our virility. 

A woman sees a handsome man and decides she wants him. She rummages through her closet and pulls out the most flattering lesu, wraps it around her curves and starts strutting in front of the man. Men being visual beings can be easy to nail that way, even all the way down the aisle. 

Also consider the cohabiting cases of today. Most women deliberately get pregnant and use their pregnancies to blackmail men into marrying them. Those are some of the subtle ways women are proposing to us. They have perfected the art of proposing so excellently that massive numbers of men are living in the delusion that they are the ones that loved, wooed, popped the question and conquered! It makes me laugh to think about it.

 But when all is said and done, it doesn't make you less of a man just because a woman proposed. If you like her and want to be with her, the rest of your life and vice versa, does it really matter who pops the question? In countries like India women have the official duty of being the chasers of men after all. As one debater put it, "The only thing a woman cannot do in India is to become a man!" And marriages there are probably more stable than marriages in Uganda where the man takes the lead. 

In all, I choose to be a rationalist. If a woman has no problem proposing and the man has no problem being proposed to, let them be. This scenario will not make a woman grow beards neither will it make the man lose his manhood. Moreover, "proposal" is only an eight-letter word. Conformity is sometimes deformity. Also remember the road less travelled oft makes all the difference.