Essay

 

Blue and Pink ? For What? 

In today’s fast moving world, men and women should get an equal chance in everything . Why discriminate on the basis of pink and blue or girl or boy?  

I would like to quote  famous actress and activist Emma Watson “I am from Britain, and I think it is right that I am paid the same as my male counterparts. I think it is right that I should be able to make decisions about my own body. I think it is right that women be involved on my behalf in the policies and decisions that will affect my life. I think it is right that socially, I am afforded the same respect as men.” Yes, she is right and every woman acquires this.

  People think that women or girls are weak infront of men. They think that women should sit at home, cook, clean and look after children. Girls and boys are not equally seen. Even kids are discriminated against. They are discriminated against on the basis of blue and pink. For example , we buy fashion kits, teddy bears, dolls  or pink clothes for girls and mechanical kits, roller skaters ,  cricket bats or blue clothes for boys. This is not at all right. Also when boys cry they are told, “ Hush! Why are you acting like a girl?” , and this makes them think that only girls cry, not boys. Really? Why all this? Why are boys seen as strong and courageous and girls soft and weak? When a boy asks for a cooking set or when a girl asks for a car or anything that is seen as a boy’s toy they are refused by saying that it's not for boys or it’s not girly? Or when girls act like the leaders they are told that it is the duty of a boy to be the leader. Few days ago in a newspaper I read a column about the same topic, Gender Inequality. It was talking about employment and promotion of men and women . It said  that when companies have a good profit they give promotions to men and not women, it said that companies thought if they would promote a woman at this time the company would go down under her leadership. But when it goes down women are made the leaders to put the blame on her for the company's loss. This system is entrenched. A myriad of men are working while only a small number of women are. Men burgeon but sadly, women do not.  

Today's belief is that women are a minority which is treated unequally because of their gender and low participation in politics.

There are about 3.97 billion men and 3.905 billion women in this world. To make it more clear, male population makes up 50.42% of the population and women make up 49.58% of the same. That’s just a .84% difference! Which means there are 3,33,50,002 men more than women, which shows that we are almost equal to men and not a minority.

But today even boys are facing this problem of inequality. I would  like to quote Emma Watson again, “Men, I would like to take this opportunity to extend your formal invitation. Gender equality is your issue, too. Because to date, I’ve seen my father’s role as a parent being valued less by society, despite my need for his presence as a child, as much as my mother’s. I’ve seen young men suffering from mental illness, unable to ask for help for fear it would make them less of a man.”

Men are made fragile and insecure by a distorted sense of what constitutes male success. Men don’t have the benefits of equality, either.

We don’t often talk about men being imprisoned by gender stereotypes, but they are, and that when they are free, things will change for women as a natural consequence. If men don’t have to be aggressive in order to be accepted, women won’t feel compelled to be submissive. Both men and women should feel free to be sensitive. Both men and women should feel free to be strong. It is time that we all perceive gender on a spectrum, instead of two sets of opposing ideals. If we stop defining each other by what we are not, and start defining ourselves by who we are, we can all be freer.

    Men could take up this mantle so that their daughters, sisters, and mothers can be free from prejudice, but also so that their sons have permission to be vulnerable and human too, reclaim those parts of themselves they abandoned, and in doing so, be a more true and complete version of themselves.

    This is very sad . We have to change but it is very difficult to change the minds of people and men and women have to work together for this.