Musings on the Train

The long commute to work leaves me with ample time to contemplate on numerous things, if I don't have a book that is. One of the first things I've noticed in the LRT and MRT is that even if the communters were already segregated into"all female" and regular cars to keep the female population safe from the wandering eyes and exploratory hands of the women-hungry male animals in the "normal" train, women still choose to ride the "normal" train. Now i began to wonder why this was and i fugured that maybe it was all due to the overcrowding of the female part of the train (as there is a male to female ratio of 1:6) but i discovered that the female train isn't even that crowed! atleast not like the sardines-like condition in our part of the train.

Then I finally figured it out! In the male part of the train, they have to rely on chivalry of the nearby males to give them seats! This is the procedure: 1) enter the train and survey the occupants of the seats. 2) ease your way into the seat area 3) look for a male that looks to be courteous and is not carrying heavy bags or such 4) stand right in-front of the male and appear to be inconvienced by the load that you are carrying 5) wait patiently as nearby males and females turn their heads towards the male who is about to lose his seat 6) thank the poor man with a smile and slowly ease into your seat 7) watch the male and thank the gods for the blessing of gentlemen silently toast to your victory.

Let me just say that I prefer to stand when in a train as it saves me the trouble of getting up and looking all-gentlemanly/wussy/defeated by society's standards. But standing up, i still find myself inadvertently giving up a nice piece of space close to the dorrs and the nadles for a woman, although make no mistake about it, I will give up my seat for a woman, espcially for the elderly/pregnant or those carrying heavy loads. But then should men really give up our seats? why can't they stay on their part of the train? Well I overheard a group of women talking while waiting for a train in the station and it went something like this:

Female 1: San ka pupunta? dito na tayo magantay! (Where are you going? lets just wait here!)

Female 2: Dun ako sa parte ng tren na puro babe. (Im going to the part of the train for women)

F1: Wag na! Di nga siksikan dun pero di ka rin naman makakaupo! Pag dun ka sumakay walang magbibigay sayo ng upuan nila. (Don't go there! It may not be crowed there but you won't be able to get a seat there either, if you ride that part of the train, no one's gonna give you their seat. )

F2: Hmm oo nga ano, dito nalang tayo cguro naman may gentleman na magpapaupo satin dito. (hmmm yes that's right, lets just stary here, im sure a gentle will give up his seat for us)

Gender equality indeed. Need I say more?