2....

Of Course There Is Still Sexism. Think about it. There is nearly as much sexism against boys, as there is much sexism with girls. It is important that the topic be confronted, because these misconceptions are so destuctive to the soul. This is the fault of negative and false gender roles.

Sexism Against Boys: Boys are generally expected to never express their emotions, lest they be considered "pussies" or "gay." (Funny that those are the ultimate insults for men.) They're expected to risk their lives for stupid reasons to prove their strength, and to always be competitive and ruthless. They can't feal pain, they have to win in fights. They can't wear pink, or hug each other, or cry.

Men and Women are not masculine and feminine the way society perceives it. The established ideas that exist for femininity and masculinity were created by ignorant men many hundreds of years ago. And they are culture specific. The rules for what is acceptable behavior for men and women is too restrictive, as well as destructive and hurtful. Especially in the case of women, because women are taught to hate themselves and each other to compete over men and beauty.

"Feminity" is supposed to be being excessively nice, pretty, submissive, co-dependent, weak, vain, high maintenence, sneaky, modest, helpless, obedient, ignorant/ innocent, virginal, fearful, and insecure. In the roles of wife women are supposed to be the maid, cook, servant, and sex object of men. Women are supposed to be manipulative, back-stabbing, gossipy, shallow, and obsessed with shopping. Women are expected to clean and nuture and nag. Women are supposed to love romance movies, babies, and flowers. You're not supposed to aspire to being a pilot, but instead a stewardess. You're not suppsed to aspire to being a doctor, but instead a nurse. And you're supposed to wear incredibly uncomforable clothes and spend hours painting your face, all in the name of being pretty/ cute/ sexy enough. Women are supposed to be hairless. And for women it is basically REQUIRED to be pretty. Men . But an ugly or fat girl is NEVER acceptable. (Examples: Family Guy and the Simpsons.)

Girls are also taught to hate girls. I cannot count how many times I've hung out with a group of girls and one of them says "I hate girls" and they all agree. This is moronic. They ARE girls, and they're saying it TO girls, and they don't even get offeneded. The girls who hate girls are the ones that embody all the learned "feminine" qualities that they say they hate so much.

My point is, these awful qualities are learned, not natural. I too used to act "feminine" at the expense of my soul, before Bikini Kill opened my eyes in seventh grade. I remember making an effort in fourth grade to be feminine, to be quiet and nice instead of my confident, obnoxious old self. I did stop talking, and I acted polite and pathetic, because I was taught that way.

True feminine and masculine qualities are not as flat as these fake ones. They are harder to pin down into words, and, most importantly, THEY ARE NATURAL. As kids boys and giving toy buildings and cars, so they can learn to control things. Girls are given toy vaccuum cleaners, babies, washing machines, and barbies. That is CRUEL BRAINWASHING AT A YOUNG AGE. It is unfair.

We are trained to hate ourselves as women. We are trained to think only men can be good at anything. Many boys and girls I know won't listen to a band if it has girls in it, or read a book by a woman, or respect a female artist. They assume its bad if it's by a woman. Many men AND women I know feel this way, even at art school. They hate anything made by women, they think its inherently worse. This hurts me to the core, because I naturally aspire to learn and create art and music... and knowing most people will hate it because of my genitalia is very sad.

Also, this is very untrue in my opinon. Every field has accomplished, talented women in its history. Of course there are less accomplished women than men! Women were heavily oppressed! But they still did great things, of course LESS of them had the means, freedom to aspire to anything. And most accomplished women throughout history are less remember, less respected, less known.

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My friend's mother once said that men and women start out much the same at the beginning of their lives, and as they grow up they become more and more different from eachother, but also they become more compatible and complimentary with age. This makes sense. Little boys and girls are basically the same in their psycholgy, their differences are mostly learned, and they hate each other. With time we grow into more honest forms of men and women and compliment eachother better.