In today’s times, it is paramount to teach the younger generation that it is alright not to fit into the gender norms of society and instead do what they want to do and not be bothered by what the orthodox multitude has to say. Gender was never supposed to be only male or female, a conspicuous evidence of this is that in numerous mythologies, many gods and goddesses are depicted as gender fluid. So, where did people get the idea of someone’s gender being just male or female?
There is an ample number of celebrities such as Miley Cyrus, Olly Alexander, Demi Lovato, Jaden Smith, and so on who are exceptionally influential and have helped quite a few people feel comfortable in their own skin. In my opinion, to start breaking gender stereotypes, a significant example being the cliche, “only girls can like the colour pink and only boys can like the colour blue”, we need to start at home, we should start by explaining to our elders. In their generation, they were forbidden from expressing themselves the way they wanted to. Hence, it’s upon us to make them recognise and condition themselves to the changing world. It’s time we need to let toys just be toys and not have a different section for girls and boys, it shouldn’t matter that a boy likes playing with dolls and a girl likes playing with trucks. Especially in Indian households, we need to start realising that there is no gender when it comes to household chores; the boys can also help with the chores, it shouldn’t just be thrown upon the girls. The phrases “boys don’t cry” and “stop crying like a girl” need to be altogether eliminated from people’s dictionaries because it not only is extremely misogynistic, but it also endorses toxic masculinity which will not help anyone in the future.
As a community, we need to start keeping up with the times and start accepting people for who they are. We need to stop shaming people for being different because if we really want to evolve more, it’s time we evolve our mentality first and develop not only by size but by our mind as a whole.