Breaking Stereotypes!

“You are a girl, you aren’t supposed to walk this way.”

“You shouldn’t talk so loud remember you are a girl.”

 “Beta, don’t wear such clothes, you are a girl so dress decently.”

“This is not meant for girls.”

“Don’t take up this as your career, girls don’t go for it.”

“You are already 22 , its high time to get married now.”

Typical comments by the society which kills hundreds of dreams. Indian society celebrates the birth of a ‘Boy’ child whereas considers a ‘Girl’ child as a burden. The first few areas of concern when a girl child is born are-“Expenses would be more, we need to save money for her marriage, she wouldn’t look after her parents after marriage as she will have to run her own family and so on.”  The society begins to get judgmental the moment a girl child is born. Right since the early ages, some rules and norms are set based on the gender, in which the kid is expected to behave. More than considering what the kid likes to do, we persuade them to follow the rules which our “so called unbiased society” has set.

We fail to understand the fact that there is no point in differentiating kids’ right since birth and accordingly influence them to behave in a prescribed manner, which the society considers ideal. We never ask what the child wants to do or what he wants to become. We teach them to differentiate between everything even petty things such as toys based on their gender-If it’s a boy, he can play with toy guns, cars, etc.; if it’s a girl, she has to confine herself to dolls. We encourage boys to actively participate in sports ,while we don’t prefer a girl taking part in sports just because we feel that boys can excel in that field as they have stamina while a girl is physically weak. We have taught boys not to cry and be brave ,while girls can cry as we call them sensitive.

On reaching the teen ages, we encourage boys to do what they wish to, while we start confining girls to certain set boundaries. We never ask what she actually wants from their life. We just teach her to follow what the society says, act in a manner that is acceptable to the society and follow the crowd. More than living for her, she starts living according to what the people feel is right for her. She is taught to sacrifice her dreams, her life, just for the sake of the society.

We want boys to first settle down in their life and independently start earning and stand on his own feet and then we ask him to marry. Why don’t we do the same when it comes to a girl? Just as she completes her education, people start forcing her to get married. We never ask her what her plans are. We are ready to force our wishes on her. She is never taught to carry herself the way she wants to. “Don’t walk fast, walk elegantly. Don’t talk loud, talk softly. Don’t get angry, stay calm. Don’t back answer and learn to hear what others say. Learn to cook, as you will have to run your own family…” just because you are a girl and you have no life of your own, you always need to act like a faithful dog whose chain is held and controlled by the evil hands of the society. You are a puppet and need to act according to the set tunes. Your life as a girl is to be lived considering everyone and there is no complete freedom which you can enjoy at any point of time.

In spite of modernization and westernization, we aren’t able to come out of this evil discrimination of our society. We all know who is MS Dhoni but how many of us actually know who is Mithali Raj ? Well, just a handful I guess .She is the captain of Indian Women Cricket Team. Have you ever seen 

her playing? Why is it that we aren’t aware of her?Is is because we have set cricket to be Men's Game and cant accept women playing it? It is just because we consider women playing cricket not interesting and thus don’t prefer watching it. We all can accept a Man as your boss but it takes time to digest the fact that we are working under a woman. Women can’t be bossy and dominating us, for it hurts our ego. How can a woman control us? How can she excel more than us? This is what comes to our mind first. We create an image of a woman who is a house-wife and an unpaid servant who looks after her husband and takes care of her kids, who has no life of her own and acts according to the commands she receives. When she tends to break this image and come up in life, the society plays a vital role in curbing her growth and reminding her of her position in the kitchen and not in a cabin. 

Every girl has her own voice to be raised against this.

(FROM EVERY GIRL CHILD WHO IS CONSIDERED AS A BURDEN TO THIS SOCIETY)

Dear society- Remember even we are human beings; we are born to be ourselves and not what you want us to be. Why do you need to tell us what we have to do, when we aware of it yourselves? Even we are blessed with thinking capacity which helps us to differentiate between what is good for us and what is not. Would you like it if your son is controlled by someone? Similarly even we don’t like to be controlled by someone. Just because we are females doesn’t mean that we are the vulnerable class of the society. In today’s times, we have achieved all what a man can achieve and have gone much beyond it. This has become possible because somewhere her parents believe in her abilities and know that she would do right if she follows her passion .The only difference between a male and a female is the physical constitution and that isn’t something that makes us different from males. We have feelings, emotions, our own interests and goals and we want to achieve it. When a male and a female can individually achieve so much, then when they come together they would produce better results. This is possible only if the narrow outlook toward the genders is changed. Would you like your daughter or your sister or mother or friend to be treated in a way which she doesn’t like? Should she give up on her dreams just because she is a girl? Should she live a life for others rather than for herself? Should she be differentiated from the male members of the society? If no, then we need to change this mentality of the society, we need to raise our voice against such typical stereotypical mind set. You need to secure them the same status as the male members of the society get. If you want a good wife for your son, teach him to respect her. If you want a daughter to make you proud, let her follow her dreams and she would definitely make you proud of her presence in your life. . There is no point in differentiating between the genders as we all are gods beautiful creations and have our own right to live in this society the way we want to. Let us together break this mind-set of the society and secure the rights of each member of the society for a better tomorrow.