Smoke, drink or womanise: Who says a man has to do any?

This is not a philosophical post or some attempt to make a simple issue deeper than it is. I am just here wondering aloud at how the idea became popular that a man has to either be an alcoholic, a smoker or someone who womanizes wantonly.

To say you have none of these vices will most likely attract doubts and funny looks from the inquirer. Just ask around, a lot of men would be willing to tell you about how they have experienced this at least one time, and that is me being very, very conservative.

It’s fine to smoke if a man chooses to ignore all the health warnings against it. It’s also fine to drink from time to time and of course, liking women and being a horrible flirt is not a crime either. Anyone can pick their vices and live their lives in the way they please. No judgment on how people choose to live it up.

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It is not OK, however, to presume that every man would belong in either or more of these categories.

It’s not exactly a national threat and no guy has ever died from being wrongly presumed to be a smoker, drinker or womanizer. But it’s worth pointing out, regardless, that the idea that every man does at least one of these things is a tad absurd and it’s not cool to walk around with such preconceived notion about everyone, especially in 2019 – and more so if you are an educated, adult woman.

This message ties perfectly into the narrative of another article I wrote here, where I said: “people are absolutely different [from each other] and as you must have heard, what [works for] this person may not rock the other person's boat in any way, even though they may share cultural, gender, locational and even physical similarities.”

I am hoping that when next anyone makes this statement around you about how all men smoke, drink or womanise, you’ll be able to ask them the same question at the top of this page: who says a man has to do any?