There is a common misconception that men are exempt from the burdening stereotypes and societal pressures and that women are the only victims of this. Our society has accepted hyper masculine stereotypes where men are valued by physical strength, dominance, economic success and the look that further supports this image. While girls are harmed by the unrealistic cultural demands to be pretty and submissive, boys are also being harmed by the expectations to be tough and live up to a role of manhood our society has adopted. Throughout history and to this day many men have been judged ‘too sensitive’, ‘too queer’ or ‘too intelligent’ to suit this traditional masculine ideal. This skewed view on masculinity leaves men in isolation, pushing them into depression and causes them to dominate the suicide statistics.
Saturday, 12 December 2015
Wednesday, 9 December 2015
End Fear with Tolerance
Today, for the first time in my life I saw armed police men in the London tube. It gave me chills that we have reached such a point of fear and lack of trust in each other, and that there has been such a significant amount of previous terror to breed this fear. There are people living in constant horror and loosing their lives every day due to religious divisiveness all over the world, with so many incidences un proportionally unnoticed in the public eye. It is now more important than ever to turn to trust and acceptance as a backlash to the fear that is breeding. It is paramount that the disenfranchised members of our societies are met with support and companionship. Some wonderful efforts have been made in this direction already. We must unite as a world and change our narrative to an inter-religious one that breeds tolerance. The extremist mob-mentlity coming from terror groups (who are by no means religious) and the all too encompassing and over-generalised fear and suspicion from the rest of us can be transformed into a unanimous desire for the wellbeing of all people, just because they are human. Peace and a shared common humanity is too beautiful not to be created. Every moment of every single person's life provides a new opportunity to chose this outcome. This arms us all with wonderful tools that give us more power than we realise to collectively create a more harmonious world.
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