“Welcome to our society. You will be judged on what you wear, your opinions, what you look like, what you say, and how you act and there is no escaping it”
Hey you, yes you! The one behind the screen reading this. Let me ask you a question real quick: Who is the father of Science? Most of us would say Galileo Galilei. But what if I asked you this Instead: Who is the
mother of science? For all of those people who just googled that up, I’m pretty sure that your first search result would have been a link to a wikipedia page “List of people considered father or mother of a scientific field”.
How many women can you actually see there? I’ll wait for you to count, to make it easier for now, let me tell you that in a list of well above 80 people, I found only 6 women. Yes, only 6 women! Marie Curie, Ada Lovelace and Emmy Noether to name a few. Holding on to that thought for a second there. Why exactly do you think that was? Was it because women are not capable of anything outside the kitchens? Is it ecause the men are just somehow smarter? Is it because women are not skilled enough to use their brains? Or is it because women can’t achieve great things? They can’t accomplish their dreams?
NO, Not even one of these pathetic excuses engraved into all our brains for centuries are “reasons”.
Women have always been looked down upon, since the beginning of the existence of our species. For some illogical, unfathomable and unexplainable reason women have always been treated unfairly.
Generation after generation, women are still fighting to this day to live in a world which treats them as equal individuals.
What exactly is the difference between a man and a woman?
Scientifically speaking a female will have XX – chromosomes while the male on the other hand have XY- chromosomes. This small change in your chromosome defines your gender. Coming to actually think about this, what does this small change in your chromosomes do? Yes they have different body features, their voices sound different. Factually that’s all there is, we look different and have different body functions and features. In no way shape or form does the added Y chromosome increase the size of your brain or what you are capable of, It does not define who you are and what you can be. End of the day we
all are just a whole load of walking moving cells.
It’s quite sadistic actually. The woman who brought you to life and one of the sole reasons for your existence isn’t even treated fairly. The amount of time and effort she spends on you at the end of the day, she isn’t even considered equal. Emma Watson, most of yall would know her as Hermione Granger from Harry Potter, She said “It is time that we all see gender as a spectrum instead of two sets of opposing ideals”. This is so true. I think it’s long due that gender equality should have been a living reality by now.
Gender equality is a human right, not a women’s fight. Our society has to understand that the term gender equality has so much more depth to it than generally perceived. When I say gender equality it means every single man, women, and gender diverse people.
Some of the values and customs our society possesses are sometimes even more fatal and venomous than poison itself. (So basically you have more chance of surviving a snake bite, than living life fulfilling all of society’s expectations.)
Men are subjected to toxic masculinity every single day. Men don’t cry, Stop acting like a girl, pink is for girls! Not a single thing is true, Men can cry if they want to, there are also social beings with emotions, you cannot stop their feelings. Also what do you mean stop acting like a girl, how exactly do girls act? Is it any different from guys?
from the feminine aisle at your supermarket is pink and every single product made for males is either balck or blue.
Now to the entire world pink is a colour and men can like. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that. It does not define your “masculinity”, it’s your choice of opinion and thought process. So if you hear anyone say such stuff to you, stand up for yourselves because if you don’t do it no one will.
And as if life wasn’t hard enough already, we also feel pressured to live up to certain beauty standards. The “Ideal” standards for men are all six packs, triceps, biceps, abs, basically a whole lot of muscle. And for
women extremely hour-glass figures, without a single bit of fat. Having fat is basically a crime. Social media is one of the main causes as to why most people aren’t comfortable with how they look . The Influencers that we all look up to, trying a billion different diets to lose weight and gain muscle. Everyone is so insecure in their own bodies. Kids get bullied in school because they don’t fit your average beauty standard. Well if it helps, i’ll let you in on one of the biggest secrets in the beauty industries. The models, beauty guru, influencers that we all look up to, don’t even feel confident in their own skin which either leads them to go under the knife to have surgical processes or heavily photoshop their photos. So many of our celebs have opened up that these toxic beauty standards have led even them to feel insecure– sometimes even leading to depression and anxiety.
The number of eating disorders people are developing due to these “fitness” and “beauty” standards. 1 in 5 people are not confident in their own bodies. I want every single one of you to know that you are beautiful however you look, the number on the scale does not define anything at all.
The next lingering problem is Education-
Malala Yousafzai was shot by the Taliban in October 2012 just because she wanted to be educated. It took for a young girl to be shot for the world to look up and pay some attention to the lingering problem of educating young girls. In India, the adult literacy rate is 69.3% and that among males is 78.8% and females 59.3%. In India, innocent and poor children are victims of child labor and forced labor. Women are not encouraged to get educated as most of our societies see a woman’s future as nothing else but getting married and caring for her family. We will never progress until women are educated. Even today less than 34% of our lawmakers are women. A woman has every right to get educated. Women cannot all succeed when half of them are held back. We need to ensure education and equality for women so that they can flourish. “Education is the most powerful weapon that you can use to change the world!”
The lack of education also leads to unemployment and unequal opportunity. Really what did you expect at this point you shouldn’t even be shocked. Taking our country India for an example, The first and most prevalent problem is the large population. Indians make a world record with 49 babies born per minute, it’s really not the best thing. The population keeps growing but the amount of land we have does not increase, nor do the number of job opportunities. What exactly do you expect them to do? They have to be properly educated in order to make a living for themselves. You simply cannot live off what is passed down to you generation after generation. Firstly the women in india arent even getting educated, they are provided with no resources or opportunities. How do you expect the country to flourish if half of its population are women who are discouraged from going to work. I’m so glad to say that people nowadays are actually using the grey matter inside their heads and providing proper education for their kids and encouraging our leading women to work.
Another lingering problem is Racism. Like hello world, people, humans, aliens, homo sapiens we are in the 21st century and racism is still a problem? Are you really just differentiating people on the basis of how much melanin they have in their skin. At this point i’ve lost all faith in humanity (P.s to all the einsteins’ here melanin is the pigment which defines your skin colour) The more melanin you have the darker your skin is and vice versa for the less melanin you have. Like which brain dead person suddenly got up in the middle of the night and just decided that the lighter your skin the better you are. You know what, don’t tell me that, because that person’s future is not looking too bright (we’re just going to ignore the fact that they’re probably dead by now). It’s not just the Africans, Asians, Indians, basically anyone who isn’t really pale is discriminated against for the colour of their skin. We can see this all throughout history, and its high time we stop discriminating people on basis of colour. Because it is the most pointless thing ever.
Talking about standing up for yourself, how many of the girls reading this can confidently say that they can walk out on our roads at 3 am in the morning? Less than 5%? We are spending a fortune learning self defence but why? First off, just the thought of walking on the roads at 3 am itself raises some eyebrows. Because if you are anything like me you would be knocked out of your senses, you wouldn’t even get up if there was a thunderstorm. But the thought of walking down a street in the middle of the night alone sends shivers down our spines. The day when both men and women can freely and safely walk around the roads at three am in the morning, that is the day when we can proudly say that our country is truly independent . But like kids please be sleeping, I wouldn’t want all your parents questioning me as to why everyone is awake at three in the morning.
And last but not least Mental health (I am very aware of how cliche that sounded please ignore it) Mental health is not given the amount of importance it needs. Mental health can affect daily living, relationships, and physical health. The way people think, feel and behave is always turned a blind eye upon. Anxiety disorders, panic disorder, phobias, depression, bipolar disorder, eating disorders, personality disorders and PTSD are all real things. Which can affect a person in so many ways. Your emotional health is interconnected with your physical health. In India people just go and visit temples and shrines when anything comes up. You need to consult a medically trained professional for this, It could very well be a matter of life or death for some of us. And bullying people just because they suffer from a disorder is literally the most inhumane thing one can do. It’s not cool!
To all my fellow students and teens (the gen – Z, as we would put it). Be the change you want to see in the world.
Cause if you don’t stand up for yourself, no one ever will….
