"You run like a girl", "you hit like a girl", "you are girly", "you aren't really strong, you seem like a girl", "men don't cry", "men have to be brave", "you are too sensitive for being a man", "do you like to go shopping? that it's not a man thing" "don't you like football? Are you a girl or something?", "don't be a pussy and have some balls, you are a man"... "Llora como mujer lo que no supiste defender como hombre" (Sultana Aixa, Boabdil's mother, the latest king of Granda).
How many times did you hear those kind of words? When being "like a girl" became something bad, something to be ashamed of? Men suffer machismo too. When you tell to a little boy that he hits like a girl because he cannot hit as harder as the other boys do, when you tell to a little boy that he runs like a girl because he runs slower than the other boys do, when you tell to a little boy that he can't cry because he is a boy and crying is not a men's thing you are perpetuating role-gender stereotypes and you are teaching to boys, as well as to girls, that being "girly" is a bad thing, that being "girly" means to be fragil, unuseful, delicate, fearful... Like if girls couldn't be strong, smart, powerful or brave. Men are at the feet of sexism too.
The Feminism fights for the abolishment of those gender roles which oppressed all of us in different ways:
- If you, as a boy, can't throw a disk further than 20 metres, it is okay, tho; if you like to go shopping or wear makeup, it is okay, and that does not mean that you are less valuable, less valid or, even worse, less of a man. If you cry because you got hurt or because something broke your heart, it is okay to show it, it is okay to cry, it is okay to share and express feelings, that is not a "girl thing". If you like to wear dresses and skirts, it is okay, that does not mean that you are weird, crazy, dumb or less of a man.
- If you, as a girl, run faster than all of your mates, it is okay, and that does not mean that you are "like a man", less of a women. If you don't like to wear makeup, to go shopping or shoes, it is okay, mate, that does not mean that you are not a true girl, that does not mean that you are a "marimacho" or "machorra" (what awful words, uh?). If you like to wear buns and baggy pants, it is okay, that does not mean that you cannot be beautiful.
And if you are a tall, strong man and you are a coquettish, little girl, it is okay too! But, keep always in mind that being a girl is a wonderful thing (I know a lot about it, I can swear) and being a boy it is as well and it doesn't mind what you wear, what you do, what you like... to be awesome as you are.
This is what Feminism looks like.
When did doing something "like a girl" become and insult?
