Time flies. With each passing day, I am realizing that time runs swiftly onward. The world is never stagnant. We experience variations. We transform. Be it technical, medical, political, or economic, the list is long. And all of this happens amidst eras that change like seasons and periods which come with a lot of uncertainty. Tagging along are requirements for momentary adjustments and the need for adaptability, and that more than ever. All of that is not necessarily pessimistic, but it nevertheless inflicts a spark of negativity in me and creates so many new question marks. I have one such question, which occupies me. I don’t think it is a matter for which one right answer exists. The underlying complexity may be too significant. The fact that it has been a part of humanity since, to be honest, I don’t know when, may be another factor. It is a query without expecting reasons or explanations but certainly a way out. It is a question I am not going to write out but write about.
‘’Women are emotional, men are rational’’ ‘’Men are strong-minded, women are sensitive’’ ‘’Men are leaders, woman are nurturers’’ ‘’Women are submissive, men are dominant’’ ‘’Men are tough, women are gentle’’ – If you start thinking about the topic of gender stereotypes, it is absurd how many can be uncovered. It is the reality that we cannot let go of pictures we have inscribed into us. Neither do we realize it many times, nor are we ready to drop the labels given to each of those pictures, if we end up recognizing them.
If I count the number of times I stereotype on a daily basis, it would be disappointing and it would not be a surprise if a large fraction of it is targeted toward intrinsic perceptions about gender characteristics. As many people, I absorb. I soak in impressions, encounters, and understandings transferred from multiple ends of our society. Some parts of those inferences enrich me. They help me in staying intact and survive in a world with strong collective fundamentals. Other parts do not contribute in that manner. They actually make me the culprit of bracketing others, if not myself too.
I am not going to list any assumptions I have about why and how we have a proclivity toward gender stereotypes. But I cannot help but wonder if we can ever avoid being the cause or victim of them. Can we stop telling men to ‘’man up’’ as they are allegedly carrying the responsibility of being tough and unmoved by feelings? Can we ever look at women and not judge them if they are ‘’not acquiescent’’, as expected throughout the variations, transformations, and changes in our world? Can we accept the fact that there are individuals who do not identify with one particular gender and wish to be freed from the range of characteristics entirely? Can we really stop pointing the gun at others and dodge the bullet if aimed at us?
I am not sure how high the chances of eliminating gender stereotypes are, let alone if they are there. Tearing them out of the book called life seems too optimistic to be true. But, reducing them personally can be an incentive. For me, it is not only about showing attention but having an ingrained comprehension that each of us has the right to show our masculine and/or feminine sides as raw as they are. We can take on tasks and opt for directions we strive towards without having to jump over the fence of supposed gender rights and wrongs. We can let women be rational and strong-minded if they wish to. We can let men be emotional and sensitive if they desire to. At the end of the day, we can let people choose their own definition of what masculinity and femininity mean for themselves and their being.
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