When a girl is born in India, if you're fortunate enough, everyone is overjoyed. They don't see any difference between a boy and a girl. I was one of those lucky people who wasn't discriminated on the grounds of me being a girl. As I grew up I realized I preferred to be a guy than a girl. I mean call me sexist but this is how it is in the Indian society- a girl plays with dolls and is supposed to be shy, submissive and well-behaved. I was none of those. I loathed barbies so much that I deliberately broke the one Barbie somebody made the mistake of gifting me, I got into fights with guys and challenged guys twice my size. I went out on ventures all alone leaving my mother vexed since she couldn't find her precious annoying daughter. Basically, I was a pain in the neck.
Girls are always brought up in a way such that they live according to certain norms and have to behave a certain way, because hey! You got two X chromosomes! Thankfully I was nurtured in such a way that I never had to restrict myself to these. I think it's unfair that we expect girls to behave and act a certain way only because they are 'girls' . It's liberating to be a guy; you don't have to pay heed to what the society thinks about you or whether you're considered respectable. No matter what you do it will be excusable because "Vo Toh ladka hai" . Subconsciously as a kid I refused to bend to these man-made rules and now as a 21 year old I still refrain from subjecting myself to these regulations.
I am my own person. If I believe in live-in relationships, I'm not immoral. If I see a girl smoking I'm not going to cringe because I see a girl who is smoking, but because I don't support the habit. Time and again you see people creating an uproar over something that a girl pursues and the reasoning is usually that she had the audacity to do something like that inspite of being a girl. Seriously if you're going to oppose something let the reason be gender-free.
If you make your daughter grow up with dolls and your son with cars, you're starting to stereotype from a very young age. I understand that the two genders are different and function in different ways, but that doesn't mean you impose it on them. Let them find their personality. Help them grow as good human beings, not as someone with gender rules. Shape your child's character irrespective of his/her sex. Teach him/her to respect and acknowledge everyone as a fellow human and then as a man or a woman. Let us not create unnecessary differences. We are all imperfect and need to be groomed under the same factors. Don't teach me to be well mannered specifically because I'm a girl but because it's a virtue everybody should inculcate. Each individual has the right to discover himself/herself. Don't build shackles around your daughter. Let her grow without the society deciding her character. Don't clip her wings, let her soar, push her away from the safe nest. She will always come back, you just have to give her a chance.
Girls are always brought up in a way such that they live according to certain norms and have to behave a certain way, because hey! You got two X chromosomes! Thankfully I was nurtured in such a way that I never had to restrict myself to these. I think it's unfair that we expect girls to behave and act a certain way only because they are 'girls' . It's liberating to be a guy; you don't have to pay heed to what the society thinks about you or whether you're considered respectable. No matter what you do it will be excusable because "Vo Toh ladka hai" . Subconsciously as a kid I refused to bend to these man-made rules and now as a 21 year old I still refrain from subjecting myself to these regulations.
I am my own person. If I believe in live-in relationships, I'm not immoral. If I see a girl smoking I'm not going to cringe because I see a girl who is smoking, but because I don't support the habit. Time and again you see people creating an uproar over something that a girl pursues and the reasoning is usually that she had the audacity to do something like that inspite of being a girl. Seriously if you're going to oppose something let the reason be gender-free.
If you make your daughter grow up with dolls and your son with cars, you're starting to stereotype from a very young age. I understand that the two genders are different and function in different ways, but that doesn't mean you impose it on them. Let them find their personality. Help them grow as good human beings, not as someone with gender rules. Shape your child's character irrespective of his/her sex. Teach him/her to respect and acknowledge everyone as a fellow human and then as a man or a woman. Let us not create unnecessary differences. We are all imperfect and need to be groomed under the same factors. Don't teach me to be well mannered specifically because I'm a girl but because it's a virtue everybody should inculcate. Each individual has the right to discover himself/herself. Don't build shackles around your daughter. Let her grow without the society deciding her character. Don't clip her wings, let her soar, push her away from the safe nest. She will always come back, you just have to give her a chance.
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