Here is the issue with people making young girls/people in general feel like liking and riding horses is an embarrassing thing/not socially acceptable.
When I was in elementary school, I was made to feel so embarrassed for liking and riding horses and drawing pictures of them on my own time that I lied about what my favourite animal was to avoid being made fun of. That’s right, I never said my favourite animal was a horse because I didn’t want to be ridiculed behind my back.
Up until very recently, I’ve been scared to share too many photos of my horses on my personal facebook or instagram despite the fact that boys who only post photos of them playing soccer, hockey, etc are made to feel completely cool and okay with sharing their sports and there is no negative connotation to doing that and literally living and breathing whatever their favourite sport is and wearing a jersey every day.
Not only that, but often when my sport is accepted and it isn’t being made fun of, people sexualize it and then go and use that as ammo on why horseback riding is weird. If you’re fucked up enough to make it into a sexual thing, you’re the one who isn’t socially acceptable because your mind is in the gutter. Not only is it gross of you to do this, it also teaches young women that their sport and their passion is only considered acceptable when a man can sexualize it and make it into something it isn’t.
This type of ridiculing leads so many young people to give up their passion or feel like they need to hide it and act differently about it or pretend that it’s just a hobby. While this goes on, people continue to be 100% okay with other people sharing constant photos of their soccer, hockey, painting, photography etc and basically affirm that certain hobbies/sports are okay, while others are not and that’s pretty messed up.
You are a complete douche bag if you choose to stereotype people as being “weird” for liking or riding horses. Most young children are a little different. I could also have 1000 stereotypes towards various other sports players that may be true for some of them, but not for all.
stormborns
titsay
vaporwave
