Society's Expectations

For years I've heard about how girls are pressured by the media to look or act a certain way, but I never thought boys were under the same kind of pressure. All we hear is girls have to be skinnier, taller, prettier, have straight hair, have curly hair, have this, have that, do this, do that. But honestly how often do we hear these kinds of things about a guy? A lot less often, but its still there, we just don’t recognize it as much. Girls always talk to each other about how they feel and what they hate and want to change and magazines even show us how to do that, but you never hear guys saying "I need to be tougher" "I need to be stronger"....they think this and act on it, but it isn’t as noticeable because they have been taught from birth that it isn’t ok to show weakness or sensitivity even in the form of words. So why girls make their fears much more obvious and show that they are miserable by peoples expectations, guys are much more quiet about it and so the effect on them is subtle, but its there. They are constantly told they need to be tough and that has so many negative connotations. If you watch today’s media you see boys portrayed as violent criminals, but always with respect. They fight and go to jail with the admiration of their peers, because in movies their actions are always justified. So in real life guys try to find justification for their actions too. Is it ok to have a gun? Yeah of course because that’s an action of a man! What if it’s not safe? A real man can handle it. There is always an excuse for everything because just like us girls have been taught that everything is ok in the pursuit of beauty, guys have been taught that everything is ok in the pursuit of respect. It starts for them from birth as well. I have a three year old brother and since he hit two every time he cries, while trying to appease him, I hear my mom, dad and grandparents saying, "Come on now, you're a boy, boys don’t cry". This bother’s me because he's little and also because I know how dangerous it can be for guys to bottle up their feelings because they don’t think its ok to share them, I have a friend who kept everything and it blew up in his face, I cant say more, but it ruined so much for him, just because he was taught to keep everything inside. It’s not always possible for a guy to be extremely strong, smart, active, and brave, all at the same time anymore then it is for all girls to be a size 00, it is for some, but not all.