Stereotyping - Will it ever end?
I received a whatsApp message recently that proclaimed "where the society is headed" and it had a small video clipping of Three girls secretly trying to enjoy a bottle of beer. Then I also received a handful of images and posts that claimed "Men will always be Men" wherein the husband liked his Whiskey more than his wife and a image / post on a disgusting lament that Men are made to pay more to get alcohol from tasmac.
Now does alcohol know if the consumer is man or woman? Will it hurt less if men consume alcohol? Will it hurt women more if they consume? Obviously not. So why the hell there is discrimination? Apparently the answer lies in the piled up Stereotyping tendency of men folk and to categorize women in neat compartments (suiting to their convenience)
I fail to understand the Indian male psychology of always wanting to dominate the women folk in every respect - socially, economically, physically, emotionally etc etc. And again the root cause of this skewed thinking stems right from childhood where women are made to study in different schools and boys and girls are not allowed to mingle and interact freely and productively - which a developed nation should. The boy growing with preconceived notions about girls (fed well by the society, media family and everyone around him) sets himself a perception that girls can be categorized into neat compartments - god mother, glamour dolls, gullible fools, emotional wreck etc. etc. He goes on to think that no girl / women can do what a man can do in terms of education, career, achievement, progress, authority, independence and leadership. This picture of women is abundantly imbibed into his mind by the media - films, TV serials, commercials, magazines and news papers e.g.
1) Associate pink with girls - all girls are like rose petals
2) Girls are just a thing of beauty - use them as models on all cosmetics, shampoos, soaps etc - they never drive cars, trucks or chair the board meeting
3) Girls grow up to become doting mothers - associate them with detergents, cooking, washing, cleaning etc - they never run, climb mountains, smoke cigars, drive a motor cycle or execute a project.
4) Heroines as pictured in films have no work other than waiting on the hero, longing to sing duets, dance glamorously, little bit of crying here and there - do nothing productively that would upstage the hero anytime in the movie
When will the male dominance and stereotyping end? When do we see a society where the views of both sexes are heard equally? Where the public bodies are represented in equal numbers? Where any man and woman can publicly discuss with each other without any hang overs ? Not in another 100 years I suppose.
Now does alcohol know if the consumer is man or woman? Will it hurt less if men consume alcohol? Will it hurt women more if they consume? Obviously not. So why the hell there is discrimination? Apparently the answer lies in the piled up Stereotyping tendency of men folk and to categorize women in neat compartments (suiting to their convenience)
I fail to understand the Indian male psychology of always wanting to dominate the women folk in every respect - socially, economically, physically, emotionally etc etc. And again the root cause of this skewed thinking stems right from childhood where women are made to study in different schools and boys and girls are not allowed to mingle and interact freely and productively - which a developed nation should. The boy growing with preconceived notions about girls (fed well by the society, media family and everyone around him) sets himself a perception that girls can be categorized into neat compartments - god mother, glamour dolls, gullible fools, emotional wreck etc. etc. He goes on to think that no girl / women can do what a man can do in terms of education, career, achievement, progress, authority, independence and leadership. This picture of women is abundantly imbibed into his mind by the media - films, TV serials, commercials, magazines and news papers e.g.
1) Associate pink with girls - all girls are like rose petals
2) Girls are just a thing of beauty - use them as models on all cosmetics, shampoos, soaps etc - they never drive cars, trucks or chair the board meeting
3) Girls grow up to become doting mothers - associate them with detergents, cooking, washing, cleaning etc - they never run, climb mountains, smoke cigars, drive a motor cycle or execute a project.
4) Heroines as pictured in films have no work other than waiting on the hero, longing to sing duets, dance glamorously, little bit of crying here and there - do nothing productively that would upstage the hero anytime in the movie
When will the male dominance and stereotyping end? When do we see a society where the views of both sexes are heard equally? Where the public bodies are represented in equal numbers? Where any man and woman can publicly discuss with each other without any hang overs ? Not in another 100 years I suppose.
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