Stereotypes!! We live with these..
Hi.. I want to talk about the gender stereotypes today, spefically male vs. female today. Everytime I think about this topic, I realise that there is so much that I could get but I did not because of my gender (a female). Being a girl in Indian society is tough (I know people will say now things have changed and society has become progressive and….. But I strongly disagree!!). It blows my mind, when it comes to living with all those expectations of being a ‘acchiii ladki’, a marriage material and a “gharelu ladki” from a ‘sophisticated family’. Men like the outgoing girls for dates but a very simple living and a ‘gharelu ladki’ to marry who can take care of their parents. The question is, “Have they taken care of their parents ever?”
On that note, why do girls have to leave their parents’ house after wedding? Why can’t they stay and boys leave the house or may be there is an option of living together? Infact, why is marriage of a woman like a need for society more than the woman herself? Why can’t she decide in most of the cases, the right age for her to get married or infact whether to get married at all?
Most of all, I really don’t understand what’s the relationship ‘alcohol’ and ‘smoking’ hold with gender?
Anyways, lets talk about inheritance, 90% of the time only boys can take over the business of the father, why? Even if they fail the business terribly, they are the ones who are automatically part of it and girls have to ask for it (question is not if they get it eventually).
Why do girls have to behave or sit or talk in an appropriate manner? Why can’t they be themselves?
But there is another angle to it where we talk about the pressures on minds of male members of society. like where guys are having the pressure of earning and taking care of the family financially.
How they are supposed to be emotionally strong and considered weak when -they are being expressive. But do they need to hide their feelings always?
Why can’t they cry in front of people openly? Like guys are told in childhood that ‘Boys don't cry’. ‘Boys are strong.’ Just like females, there is a pressure on males as well. These gender stereotypes need to broken. These can only be broken when understood and taken attention to.
Artwork by : Pragya Mittal (2020)
Some noteworthy projects I got to see recently on the subject of discussion are:
a. First one by a communication designer named Ms. Roshni Rajkumar wherein she talked visually about her views on the topic by the use of photographs. It helped me to get the courage to let out my thoughts on the blog and share it with others.
b. From the Archives : by Prachi Gupta, Communication Designer
The author in her project does the topology study of the way the matrimonial photographs are taken in India today and how they were taken earlier. For that, she goes to different cities of India & gets her pictures clicked in matrimonial studio in each city. Later she compares the photographs with some old matrimonial pictures of woman (which had sourced from somewhere).The project is truly an evidence of the fact that not much has changed actually in terms of perspective towards the woman who are to be chosen by the grooms for wedding. Girls still need to be perfect physically and above the expectations of the guy and his family for being ‘CHOSEN’ as a life partner even if she is a successful woman who is earning more than a man.
So, credits to them and their amazing works which are totally inspiring!!
