Forteza, Mark Neil C.

UP-FA1-BSPSYCH1-02
03-2021-01044

“Terminating Gender Norms Given by the Society”

Gender equality is one of the paramount issues that have not been solved until now.
However, how can we, people, ask for gender equality when we are the reason itself why we
have none – normalizing gender norms. Gender norms are the criteria given by the society on
how men and women should act and be. We must terminate these gender norms if we want to
experience living with equality, and that act must begin on ourselves.
The first reason why we should terminate gender norms is it impediment gender equality.
These gender norms consist of the given roles for women and men. Society believes that women
should be responsible for house chores, nurturing, and caretaking, while men are responsible for
working because they are breadwinners. Moreover, these practices are the root of inequality, in
which both men and women should have equal roles inside a home, equal opportunities of
different jobs, and equal treatments on our society.
Secondly, it negatively affects our wellness – physical, emotional, and as well as
psychological aspects. It leaves a negative impact on a person’s physical aspect in a way that
they were influenced to change their appearance just because of the society’s standard, it’s more
like making them insecure. For an instance, a man should have muscles and a woman should not
possess any scars on her skin. Because of these standards, both genders develop low self-esteem
and not confident being who and what they are, and that falls under their emotional and
psychological welfare.
Lastly, it worsens stereotypes, racism, and discrimination. A blue is for boy, a pink is for
girl, engineering is for men, and teacher is for women, those are some beliefs of the society of
gender roles. Since the society was normalizing these norms, some people cannot leave their
comfort zones because of the threat that they might receive for having different perspective of
what they wanted to be. A man can be a teacher, a woman can be an engineer, a boy can wear
pink, a girl can wear blue, only if we terminate gender norms, all of us can be whatever we want
to be.
In a nutshell, setting an specific role of an individual because of gender is a worse thing
to do. You might be the reason why he has low self-esteem, mental health issues, or in a worst-
case scenario. The only way to put an end of this matter, is to have a fair judgement and
treatment of both genders. The most regretful thing is when we have the ability to do but we did
nothing.