The Laksamana - official blog of M. Shahrim
17/6/2025
The title. What do you think it mean?
It doesn't really mean anything. Except of course "Luna" means "moon" in Latin/Spanish.
When I was 17, in boarding school, I had a friend named Matson Luna.
A brawl buddy. We often play wrestling or arm wrestling to see who is the strongest. Crows Zero is a thing to boys like us back in the day.
He's nice yet bold, and never hold back to speak the truth or critical opinions.
I'm quite a prankster. To get his attention, I would call him names with catchy effects, Spanish-sounding, and with funny faces: "Matsunnn, de La Lunaa!".
It was effective. He would be irritated. He would get up. Then, we went into bear-gorilla-ultraman fights. Not exactly hurting, but exhilarating!
One day, we hang out in his room. We were discussing about DotA games. I shared what Hero I liked to use, and he shared his preferences.
He said "Akasha, the Queen of Pain" is a good choice.
I disagreed, nah, "hero perempuan sik kuat".
"sexist!", Matson said to me. 😂😂😂
Although I manage to enroll into a prestigious school, I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed. I don't understand what he just said. Sexist? What is sexist? LOL
(of course video game characters' capability has got nothing to do with gender. I'm being dumb)
It took me years to finally understand what is "sexist".
"showing prejudice, stereotyping, or discrimination, typically against women, on the basis of sex". The person with this idea is (also) called sexist.
By definition, yes, I'm sexist. I'm glad that Matson pointed it out. I wish to have more people like him in my circle. Insights from smart and honest people are exactly what we need to learn more about ourselves and others.
I'm not ashamed of being sexist. I may have started out with a very dumb presumption about video game stats in relation to character genders, but my thinking do evolve from time to time.
Women are physically weak compared to men. I took it further by placing the same concept to everything that women do. Yes, I admit, that was unprofessional and fallible notion.
Most days, I'm wrong and could be wrong. But there are days, where I'm right for being sexist.
In Japan, it is a norm to prefer men for in-office jobs (in contrast to other countries preferring women instead). But trend shows that this is slowly changing.
But I never said I hate women. I just hate it when they are found in a place(position) where they shouldn't be - and vice versa for men.
My premise is simple and easy to understand.
Societal integrity is dependent on roles being filled correctly. If women aimed for leadership seats, are they willing to pay the price of wrestling powers with other men? Also, being a leader mean you are the last to consume credits but will be the first to take blame. It's a selfless and political game. A women can become a soldier but not Army General.
Typical women perform best in non-political environment. What is politic? Politic is "who gets what and how". Caring for babies is not political. Teaching is not political. Nursing the sick is not political.
Historically, does women ever go around and compete for men from other women? No. But men do. Competing for women is political - history is littered with stories of men killing each other because of beatiful women.
Women gets pregnant, and getting pregnant is not political - the father will be responsible to find food and shelter (for modern day version, the father has to find jobs, competing with other men out there). The men decides what the women "gets and how". The women just "get".
If we allow the roles to be filled incorrectly, the politically-abled will have to compete with the group that enter 'politics' just for the "money" or "self-fulfillment". To restate, being a leader means you put yourself last. A female Manager will put herself first, while a man working as security guard puts her wife and kids first.
Are there sector where both men and women can thrive if they can? Yes, it's called business.
Mohamad Shahrim
author of The Laksamana