Paternalism

pəˈtərnlˌizəm/

noun

1. the policy or practice on the part of people in positions of authority of restricting the freedom and responsibilities of those subordinate to them in the subordinates' supposed best interest.

   
   

   Special thanks to my best friend, let's call her Yolanda for giving me a better title than what I originally wanted to call this post which was "When society tells you what's right". That's A-levels for you, just using big ass words. 

   
   

   Language is absolutely beautiful. We have so many words for so many things but for some reason, the only word society allows men to be described as is "manly". Why?

   
   

   I was never allowed to express myself as a child the way I wanted to. I was never allowed to play with dolls even though I wanted to. I was never allow toys which were labeled "for girls" because I was a boy, whenever I wanted to dress up, I was never allowed to pretend I was wearing a dress, I was never allowed to feel beautiful, I had to be a man, I had to be handsome.  

   
   

   By society's standards, men cannot be "feminine" or "womanly". But society also gets to decide what gets to be classified as "masculine" and what is not. Who allowed them to decide? Well, it is us. We have allowed society to not only classify and box us into very constricting identities, but forces us into these tight molds that we helped built, and we must conform to what we society feel is the social norm and that you don't you're queer, weird and different. 

   
   

   We are told to embrace our individuality. We are told we are special. We are told we matter. 

   
   

   So, why is that same society that tells us that we should love what makes us different, telling us what we should be? 

   
   

   Maybe it was all just an elaborate prank, they never wanted us to ever help. Even from the clothes we wear as babies, we know that blue is for boys and pink for girls. As kids we are told that dolls were for girls and the males played with guns. In school boys learn about electronics, machinery. Girls learned how to cook, and sew. We are the results of what has been taught to us subconsciously. Is there an end to this cycle of false hope for individuality?  

   
   

   I sure hope there is. What people then to forget is that we are dynamic (another world I picked up thanks to A-levels) we are all different and by controlling individuals that are innocent and not allowing them to be who they feel they rightly are, are we not in the wrong? It is their lives and it should be their choice on how they want to express that. We have to stop labeling and generalizing when we see fit. Stop trying to tell people we need to be this or we have to wear that. Let us be who we want to be.

   
   

   Yours truly,

   Ez