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I woke up in the morning and headed to the mirror to grab a hair comb. As I looked at my reflection, the image of my feminine face and long hair stared back at me. It reminded me of the stark contrast with my friend Taylor, who identifies as a trans girl. Her masculine appearance that contradict to how she truly sees herself.
I guess people just feel this need to slap labels on themselves to stands out. I mean, seriously, take a look around—tattoos, hair dye, rocking black attire, or going all out with the pink one, which totally out of my style. Heh... People nowadays are weird.
My mind wanders as i walk to the bathroom to brush my teeth.
Questions pops into me. At what point in life do I think that my body fits me? Knowing I wake up every day with no care, I have hands to touch, a head to think, legs to walk, and whatnot. I know period is a pain in the ass, but other than that, I don't think there's anything that makes me believe that gender have any relevance in life.
I take the time to spit out the toothpaste foam and rinse my mouth with water.
Yeah, excluding those catcalls on the street. Can't even walk in peace without unwanted attention. Though being a girl isn't all that bad, I think. We get a lighter and slightly easier position in most of the work we put in. Surely, the difference in strength made Mr. Edward put girls on a different finishing distance than the boys in last week's marathon PE.
Though, girls are often portrayed as products, expected to be perfect from hair to toe. Everything can be sold as a product of beauty to girls, even mere unnecessary things that are most often uncomfortable and unhealthy.
I cupped the water from the faucet with both hands and splashed it on my face.
Then it hits me. it's not the gender that is the problem in the world; it's the society that keeps tearing it apart. Society has grown to shove stereotypes into everything— race, age, gender... especially gender. They slam girls into an image, demanding them to embody fragile perfection and beauty, while hammering boys into an image of unyielding strength, toughness, and control.
No wonder tears flow so freely these days. Girl weeps to the societal standards of beauty because she believes, and the world makes her believes, that she's ugly. Boys, too, shed tears under the weight of societal expectations for toughness, crying out because they lack the strength to pretend strong and carry it all for himself.
I grip the sink tight in frustration, anger boiling within me at how society imposes unrealistically idealistic standards on individuals.
Then I get it. People being rebellious, in a way, is to shake off the gender from the bad stereotype that sticks with it. They dress, behave, or socialize outside of the norm because the norm itself isn't healthy.
If there's one thing I had to fight back against, it would be the unhealthy society deeply rooted in the history of humanity! Gosh, that sounds like an impossible task for a generation to tackle. It's as if we're up against an opponent with no way to fight back. No wonder people nowadays can only try to change what they can.
As I finished getting ready and packed my backpack for school. Then, there it was, an open book just chilling on my desk, totally ruining my journey of deep thoughts about society. Reality check: I haven't done my homework that are due today! Ugh, the struggle is real. Forget society; my arch-nemesis is a stack of assignments. Classic.