A day which has gone unnoticed. A day which is as important as International Women's day. I do not intend to glorify the status of men or boast about the achievements. I just want to raise a few social issues which the "un-fairer" sex endures everyday.
Social issues
Being a guy who has gone through childhood and teenage years, I elaborate on one main issue every boy faces. From trying to figure out their masculine identity to taking up responsibilities. All these are heavily influenced by societal stereotypes. From a very young age, boys are taught not to cry. It was considered weak and society attached this stereotype that men shouldn't cry and keep all their emotions bottled up. This affects the person in the long run. Men who cannot open up start having mental issues and other psychological issues which may aggravate to suicides. When I was in primary school, among our peer group, boys were considered to be less disciplined and mischievous. This general stigma was applied to every boy in the classroom by the teachers. Also, classroom injustices like punishment for boys and wavier of punishment for girls were other discriminations which I faced. Growing up as a teenage boy, being trapped in a limbo between maleness and what is expected of by the society.
Right from the childhood, the male child is considered to be an aggressive species. Yes, it is true that men are aggressive, but that is usually testosterone induced aggressiveness. That doesn't mean males can't be as caring as females. Males are considered to be emotionless beings and are expected to stay that way everywhere in the society. What they don't understand is that men are also humans and humans have emotions too.
In many countries including mine, Men are considered sexual predators. As a consequence of wrong doings of a few mentally unstable people, the country's entire male population are considered to be rapists. Being a young guy in a country like this is quite difficult where every woman looks at you with an impression of you being a sexual predator. This is something many young men go through everyday. Being labelled as a rapist/molester by the society. Young men are now scared to approach girls even to flirt harmlessly only because they are characterized to be a rapist.
Legal issues
Numerous laws are unjust to males. Right from marriage laws,divorce laws and child custody rights. I don't want to elaborate them. But to summarize them, it leads to the male suffering. If there is no equality in this, how will we ever have peace?
Yes, many wars were fought in the past because of males. Many mass destruction weapons were built by men. But we are all humans, and humans make mistakes. Many wars were mistakes and many wars had reasons behind it. Whatever may be the achievements of males in the past, you have to know that there were millions of hard-working and determined men behind it.
Men have withheld the pillars of society, Men have protected, braved and worked to keep up families, countries.
Being a man is not shamelessness. It is something to be proud of. We have our unique traits which gives us a certain identity.
We shouldn't fight for men's rights separately. We need to fight for equality. Equality for everyone, regardless of race, sex, religion and country. We are after all humans. We need to live in peace and harmony to survive for longer years. Instead of fighting for our differences, we need to accept them. I think it is important that we do not lose hope in this day and age. There are people out there, both men and women who wants to correct this idea of sexism, The concept of equality. We just need to raise awareness of these issues and together, we can fight this injustice. For me, International Men's day is not about the male gender. It is about the ideals of equality and another push to the peaceful world that we all aspire for.
Peace.
Social issues
Being a guy who has gone through childhood and teenage years, I elaborate on one main issue every boy faces. From trying to figure out their masculine identity to taking up responsibilities. All these are heavily influenced by societal stereotypes. From a very young age, boys are taught not to cry. It was considered weak and society attached this stereotype that men shouldn't cry and keep all their emotions bottled up. This affects the person in the long run. Men who cannot open up start having mental issues and other psychological issues which may aggravate to suicides. When I was in primary school, among our peer group, boys were considered to be less disciplined and mischievous. This general stigma was applied to every boy in the classroom by the teachers. Also, classroom injustices like punishment for boys and wavier of punishment for girls were other discriminations which I faced. Growing up as a teenage boy, being trapped in a limbo between maleness and what is expected of by the society.
Right from the childhood, the male child is considered to be an aggressive species. Yes, it is true that men are aggressive, but that is usually testosterone induced aggressiveness. That doesn't mean males can't be as caring as females. Males are considered to be emotionless beings and are expected to stay that way everywhere in the society. What they don't understand is that men are also humans and humans have emotions too.
In many countries including mine, Men are considered sexual predators. As a consequence of wrong doings of a few mentally unstable people, the country's entire male population are considered to be rapists. Being a young guy in a country like this is quite difficult where every woman looks at you with an impression of you being a sexual predator. This is something many young men go through everyday. Being labelled as a rapist/molester by the society. Young men are now scared to approach girls even to flirt harmlessly only because they are characterized to be a rapist.
Legal issues
Numerous laws are unjust to males. Right from marriage laws,divorce laws and child custody rights. I don't want to elaborate them. But to summarize them, it leads to the male suffering. If there is no equality in this, how will we ever have peace?
Yes, many wars were fought in the past because of males. Many mass destruction weapons were built by men. But we are all humans, and humans make mistakes. Many wars were mistakes and many wars had reasons behind it. Whatever may be the achievements of males in the past, you have to know that there were millions of hard-working and determined men behind it.
Men have withheld the pillars of society, Men have protected, braved and worked to keep up families, countries.
Being a man is not shamelessness. It is something to be proud of. We have our unique traits which gives us a certain identity.
We shouldn't fight for men's rights separately. We need to fight for equality. Equality for everyone, regardless of race, sex, religion and country. We are after all humans. We need to live in peace and harmony to survive for longer years. Instead of fighting for our differences, we need to accept them. I think it is important that we do not lose hope in this day and age. There are people out there, both men and women who wants to correct this idea of sexism, The concept of equality. We just need to raise awareness of these issues and together, we can fight this injustice. For me, International Men's day is not about the male gender. It is about the ideals of equality and another push to the peaceful world that we all aspire for.
Peace.
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