Gender role: The role or behavior learned by a person as appropriate to their gender, determined by the prevailing cultural norms.
We’ve all been told how to act since we’ve been young.
“Don’t sit like that, you’re a lady.”
“Girls are supposed to be sweet and nice. Don’t let foul words come out of your mouth.”
“You’re a boy. You’re not supposed to like pink.”
“Men are supposed to be tough. Men don’t cry.”
A day doesn’t go by where most of us don’t hear how we’re supposed to act like our gender. A day where females are brought down and men are idolized.
When you don’t like to act like your appropriate gender, it starts to kill you piece by piece. Every day you realize how ‘girly’ or how ‘manly’ you are and you start becoming self conscious. And then you start changing yourself to how everyone expects you to be, because, after all, what say do we have in this?
And when you disappoint the people you love because of who you are, that’s when negative thoughts start circling around your head.
Knowing who you are and what you are is really, really important, especially when you have people around you that want you to change into who they want you to be. And when you’re not who they want you to be, they’ll be disappointed in you. That’s mainly the reason why a person would be disappointed in the other: they’re not who they expected them to be.
Know who you are and worship that person. So what if you’re ‘girly’ or ‘manly’? Isn’t what matters most our happiness?
We’re all different. No one is the same as the other. And that’s the beauty of this world: no one is created a copy.
Next time someone tries to tell you that you’re not acting like your gender, stand up for yourself and tell them that this is who you are. Whether they like it or not. Not as easy as said, but it’s still a step forward to a new world where we could be who we are without judgement.
