Dear Sir,

It is getting harder to be a man these days because it’s becoming easier and more socially acceptable to declare oneself a transvestite than it is to express a type of manhood.

Women will not have the same problem because the basic DNA of life comes from femininity; all males are female before a Y chromosome intervenes and transforms the female to male (Some women jokingly refer to males as just messed-up females). The male of all species of animal life are characteristically different from their female counterparts.

The idea of sameness, or trying to judge how or what the responses to any situation should be from the opposite of either sex, is nearly impossible. The sexes simply do not understand each other and cannot because they are hard-wired completely different.

Our nervous system and automatic reaction to stimuli has had millions, if not billions, of years of development that influences how we think and react.

The best evidence of a creature is its biological history. We don’t have to rely on the concept of evolving from an ape, but primates of some type we were indeed. Like it or not, self-perpetuation is the dominant motor driving all life. To survive, the male carries billions of sperm, enough to populate the entire planet each time it copulates, for no other reason except to be the one that has perpetuity.

On the other hand, the female has certainty ingrained in their make-up. Whenever she conceives, it is hers; the male of all species do not have that level of certainty.

This is why males are naturally territorial. It is an innate impulse that helps them to be assured that their seed makes it and secures a destiny against the competition.

Males through socialisation can adjust to social considerations and conformations that may seem to make them respect the social order of monogamy, which may indeed be best practice. But, like their predecessors and biological history, they are far more prone to transgress and far too many will suffer various forms of depression and possible sublimation that results in a neurosis that fuels violent behaviour. This is also true of females, but far lesser when talking about percentages. Many cruel dictators and leaders suffer from some form of sexual frustration.

All the sexual surveys on the differences between male and female attitudes going back to when the topic emerged show males think about sex far more often than females. One survey had 65 per cent of men thinking of sex several times a day, compared with less than 20 per cent of females. Surveys showing a higher percentage of males who spontaneously cannot get it out of their mind, even when they were attending other matters, again is significantly disproportionate compared with females.

The preponderance of male proclivity to cheat or seek multiple partners when compared to even the natural propensity towards homosexuality is historically much higher; hence all the sexual arguments today about law based on sexuality is seriously flawed.

It is decidedly political and not scientific, particularly if we were to review the evidence on sexual attitudes that has always been available.

Biological history is the best indicator and if we did examine it, we would conclude as an issue of diversity that it is masculinity that is truly under attack.

KHALID WASI