$$$

I remembered this one time I was having a casual non work related conversation with my manager. He saw me looking at some watches online and proceeded to join me. I was pointing at this beautiful watch that cost about 600 ringgit. "Buy it lah!" he said. "Woi mana ada duit." I jokingly answered. It is what he said to me next that got me thinking.

"Suruh lah boyfriend kau belikan. Ada boyfriend pun tak guna. "

Wei, kepala bapak dia.

Ada boyfriend pun tak guna? Is he implying that one of the reason I (women in general) dated a guy is so that he can buy me (us) expensive shit? Seriously?

Every fucking day I saw men degrading women online, saying that a bunch of us are just sitting here painting our faces and carving our body so that rich ass dudes would come and sweep us off our feet with their credit cards. It's enough that half of the women today are striving for that very idea, now dudes are expecting us to behave like that. Generalizing that every woman is like that. I was beyond angry. I didn't spend almost 6 years of my life in engineering school to have dudes buy me expensive shit. I didn't expect life would be easier just because I'm a girl. I didn't want to be treated like I didn't work hard to earn what I have today. I didn't want guys to simply think that I (or any other girl for that matter) would thrive in a relationship with a dude that buys me expensive shit.

I do not understand why people think of materials as a symbol love. If a boyfriend doesn't buys you shit, you're better off with somebody else. Men, women, young, old, Muslims, non Muslims, majority of us today would value a relationship from the amount of money he or she spend on their significant others. Quantifying love in ringgit. I don't blame him (my manager) for having that very perception over me. So I politely answered him,

"I will never do that to him. He's far too classy for a girl that would ask for something like that."

He was shocked.

He's reaction is the correct representation of how fucked up everybody is today. The only thing that matters is the inside of one's wallet. With the continuously fucked up economy, it makes perfect sense that him, or anybody else out there, would always rely on one thing and one thing only.

Money.

"Ada boyfriend pun tak guna. "

That sentence still burns the inside of my heart.

Everybody is facing the same problem. Everybody's fucked.
Everybody work.
Everybody makes money.
Everybody is trying to make it out alive.

Stop thinking that for any reason, anybody would have it any easier.

And please don't think of love in ringgit. For your information, you shallow pretentious dick, it cost way more than that.

Way more.