Recently, events from our infamous National Assembly have foisted upon us a necessity to examine the power of social constructs and its potency to distort reality in the face of overwhelming facts.
The Dino Melaye - Remi Tinubu saga offers us such opportunity. For those not in the know, these two disgraceful elements engaged in a verbal war in which invectives brought cracks to fragile egos. Dino Melaye, a Senator representing Kogi West Senatorial Zone threatened to beat up and impregnate Mrs Oluremi Tinubu, a Senator representing Lagos West Senatorial District and wife to the ruling APC. Mr Melaye's ungentlemanly utterances came as a reprisal attack after Remi Tinubu allegedly called him a dog and a thug.
The question of who was right or wrong and/or the more pressing issue bordering around the character of the individuals parading themselves as distinguished senators is a matter for another day. The question which this article seeks to address is the double standards of gender dynamics.
As expected, Mrs Tinubu has been the most vocal of both dishonorable elements, choosing to prey on gender sensitivity in a shallow bid to accure sympathy to herself. Protests allegedly sponsored by Mrs Tinubu have been organised in Lagos and Abuja. She has also demanded for extra police protection and petitioned the leadership of the Senate and the ruling APC on the conducts of Melaye. This comes after she snubbed a closed door meeting with Melaye. Yet, Tinubu has not been known to push for any gender issue.

In the same vein, women rights' advocacy groups have sprung up, branding Melaye as a personification of male entitlement and patriarchy. No one has asked Mrs Tinubu why she first addressed her colleague as a dog or a thug.
In May 2014, a footage from an elevator camera showed Solange Knowles physically assaulting hip-hop mogul, Jay-Z, while her sister looked on like a spectator at a soccer game. Rather than chastising Solange for her unlady-like behaviour, the media, of course, trivialised the issue and turned it to a potpourri of jokes. The focus was on HOW she hit Jay-Z and not WHY.
Fast forward to September 2014, NFL quarterback, Ray Rice punched his then fiancee Janay Palmer in an elevator. The media which trivialised and celebrated Solange crucified Rice. The pressure was much that the NFL in a bid to safeguard its brand, suspended the quarterback from some games. Ms. Palmer further antagonised main stream media and feminists by professed her love for Rice and going ahead to marry him.
The aforementioned cases bring to the fore the double standard of gender dynamics and how women tend to prey on the ideology of 'weaker' sex. It challenges us to ask ourselves how double standards in gender relations tend to be exploited by women, moreso the aggressors as is the case with Senator Oluremi Tinubu. It seems it is more politically correct for the man to turn the other cheek when been assaulted by a man.
However, women have not always been innocent victims as the world would want us to see. In a 1975 controversial survey undertaken by National Family Violence Survey, it was discovered that women were just as likely as men to report hitting a spouse and men were just as likely as women to report getting hit.
At first the researchers assumed these were cases of mutual violence, which implied that the women were defending themselves or retaliating. But when subsequent surveys asked who struck first, it turned out that women were as likely as men to initiate violence—a finding confirmed by more than 200 studies of intimate violence.
The Time Magazine issue of June 25th 2014 reported that the National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey published in February that year found that some 40% of those reporting serious partner violence in the past year were men.
These surveys amongst many others have tipped the scales on the measurability of the 'weaker' sex. Surveys such as the aforementioned ones have not only been downplayed by mainstream media but also meet with stiff resistance from members of the society. Several years ago in Maryland, the director and several staffers of a local domestic violence crisis center walked out of a meeting in protest after a news segment of a local television broadcasted about male victims of family violence. If women continually prey on the idea of 'weaker' sex to press political and economical demands, then why does society deem it politically incorrect for a man to defend himself from a woman? Why do we look the other way or cracking jokes when a man is assaulted by a woman, but cry blood when the reverse is the case? We cannot argue that biology should not keep women from being soldiers while treating women as fragile and harmless in domestic battles.
The trajectory of the female victim has reached its optimum and has far outlived its usefulness. If women demand for equality (which I feel they truly deserve), then society has to use a single parameter for judging what is right or wrong which should not be based on gender. If women deserve justice when assaulted by men, then men equally deserve the same when the reverse is the case.

http://www.thescoopng.com/melaye-tinubu-2/