What’s masculine; What’s feminine? What is being butch and what is being effeminate? What is manly, what is unmanly? Who gets to decide these distinctions, these characteristics, these stereotypes? Who decides these standards and definitions of how things should be and what we should conform to?
At some point we try to toe this so called created lines, these standards. But would we be abnormal if we failed match up to them or live up to them, or we just didn’t want to be these stereotypes.
They say that the traditional male archetype is that of the hunter, the protector, the breadwinner, whereas as a woman is the nurturer, the caregiver. But what if these lines of differentiation’s were blurred, surely some fragile egos would get bruised. But then we are living in an ever changing world where there is a constant role swap and these lines are constantly blurring.
So what if we don’t identify to these set of rules, would that make us less masculine. In a world where we are encouraged to be ourselves, would trying to walk down a different path make us weird? Who gets to decide what we become, what we choose to do with our lives, other than ourselves? But somewhere in the back of our heads there are these voices tormenting us, mocking us, tell us this so unmanly.
I knew of a father who thought it was unbecoming of his son because he showed no interest in sports like football and cricket, in fact hated with of them, and was more adept to household chores.
I knew of friend who gave advise to his friend that when you marry you need to show the lady who is the boss of the house, something his mother.
What makes you man? Drinking beer, smoking, staring at woman, taking the lead, having a fragile ego? What if you didn’t do all these things, would this makes me less a man? Remember there’s more to a lady than just legs, breast, ass, as a there more to man than just his abs and chest, biceps and butt. If you like those, you can always have chicken.
We may be from a mould, but what goes into the mould is all us. It is upto us to live the life we the way we were meant to live. The world may find it difficult to accept us, may find us a difficult pill to swallow, if we do not confirm to the traditions and rules they set. They may even ostracise us, mock us, call us names, look down up on us and pity us. Remember, it is their problem.
What we need is an acceptance of ourselves, this who we are, perfect in our imperfections. But not resigning to that fact, but always striving to empower ourselves to strive to be better.
A lady may step out of the boundaries that society sets for her, or a man may step into a domain that society says it ain’t a man’s world. Break the mould and shatter the stereotypes.
We live in a mad world... things can be funny... things can be strange... but then no matter what be you... the you that were you are meant to be... others things will fall into place.
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