A couple days ago I got into my car mumbling the commentary to an important presentation I was to deliver that day. I told myself I will “seize the day” or words to that effect. I revved the car and shot off towards office to become the best powerpoint jock and consultant the world has ever seen.

At a traffic light, I idly glanced in the rear-view mirror and saw a woman behind me. She was on the phone, gesticulating furiously. She put the call on speaker, continued talking, took out a compact, lowered the vanity mirror that usually sits behind the visor and started applying makeup. As soon as the light turned green she threw the compact on the seat next to her and started off. We were together at the next light as well. This time she applied lipstick. She continued speaking. There was a baby car seat behind her.

I reached the office parking lot, locked the car and was walking away when I saw another women alight from her car, remove the flats she was wearing and put on a pair of high-heeled shoes. She too, was speaking on the phone.

I had that embarrassing feeling in the pit of my stomach that men have it really easy. Most of my male colleagues get up, go from cro-magnon to homosapien in 10 minutes with a shave and bath, slap on undies to keep their junk intact and saunter to office. And fuck you if you think you do more than that.

That’s when I realized: men seize, the women give. They give up personal lives, family time, self-respect so they can compete with men existing worthlessly under a societal carte blanche that allows them to treat women like shit, pressure them about their physical appearance and then claim they’re merely treating them as equals.

The day’s not mine to seize. It’s ours to give.