Quote:
Originally posted by Tutankhamun
Because men are more fragile than women.
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Don't you love this massive double standard when it comes to pressure to conform to gender roles?
“We teach girls to shrink themselves, to make themselves smaller," says Chimamanda. "We say to girls, you can have ambition, but not too much. You should aim to be successful, but not too successful."
Which is true. When we see that men are more likely to enter lucrative, high- paying careers, is it because women have less ambition? No, it's because of pressures to conform to feminine gender roles.
But there's a masculine gender role, too. We teach boys not to cry, not to let their feelings show. Their happiness comes second to their obligation to be rich and successful. We teach boys that they have no time to pursue frivolous or unmanly hobbies, and that men who do aren't real men.
But do we sympathize with men when we see the undue pressures society places on them? No, we laugh, as if they were the result of some inherent character flaw.
When women are pressured to be a particular way, it's oppression. When men are pressured to be a particular way, it's because they're "fragile".
Why?
Because men have the power to fight against societal pressures, and women don't.
Men have influence, and women don't.
Men have agency, and women don't.
Men act, women are acted upon.
Y'all are reinforcing patriarchal gender roles and you don't even know it.