Gender article

The future has no gender

‘Teach her that the idea of gender roles is absolute nonsense. Do not ever tell her that she should or shouldn’t do something because she is a girl. ‘Because you are a girl’ is never reason for anything. Ever.’- Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Picture this- as you walk down the street, you spot a pram covered in flowers with a pink blanket spilling out of the side. What do you think? Let’s be honest, you’re going to visualise a baby girl lying sound asleep in it. This is the harsh reality of gender stereotypes and the root of the scar it is leaving on our society.

Gender is ‘the characteristics of women, men, girls and boys that are socially constructed’, and explores the social relationships, which vary between all cultures and countries. However, over time, we have become guilty of creating specific ‘images’ for either gender to conform to. When we picture women, we begin to imagine a delicate and quiet person who remains in the home, performing domestic roles, whereas men are always portrayed as stronger and more of the ‘leader’. These images are becoming harder to escape and break out from, as we constantly live under the glare of these tropes. These gender stereotypes are causing our society to become more oppressed by the day and we need to act now, as they continue to leave a lasting defacement on the future for us as the next generation.

Children develop fastest in the first few years of their lives, meaning images which they are exposed to are rapidly picked up and mirrored in their behaviours. At the age of 3, children establish a gender identity and at age 5, children create gender stability, and begin to express their own identity and beliefs in relation to gender. If we don’t act soon, these tropes will be fully engrained into our society and we will be unable to remove this at all. The basis of these stereotypes is from parental behaviour in early childhood. Through direct messages on behaviour, such as parents giving dolls to girls and action figures to boys, or indirect comments on behaviours of others, such as ‘she’s not very lady-like', we immediately adopt these tropes too and immerse ourselves in the danger of gender stereotyping. Gender biases are constantly mirrored onto us all through these behaviours and we obliviously continue to contribute to this growing issue our society faces.

Speak out and break these stereotypes down once and for all.

As we are the future, we need to be worried about what these stereotypes could lead to. We need to realise and adapt our society away from the ‘shock’ of seeing a woman in a position of power and stop expecting those around us to obey these tropes. There is one easy cause of this danger which continues to grow by the day- the media. Through films, books and commercial products we expose ourselves to, we begin to view this as the ‘norm’ and involuntarily believe we need to replicate this behaviour too. Through seeing toys such as dolls and tea sets being constantly advertised for girls and trains and dinosaurs being shown to ‘be for boys’, we subconsciously link either sex to specific images and sometimes alter our behaviour and begin to establish beliefs of roles for either gender. Even before we are born, these stereotypes are established through one event- gender reveal parties. As blue confetti soars out of a balloon or a blue cake is cut into, those around begin to form expectations on the child’s interests, skills and behaviours and take the first step on the path towards gendered parenting and the stereotypes associated with this. Suddenly, an inundation of action figures, vehicles and Lego will surge in. We are establishing the foundations for these stereotypes to continue to develop effortlessly. We need to become the barrier to help save our society.

Take some time to embrace a genderless future.

Nobody is immune to the danger from these stereotypes. Just the other day, I witnessed my younger cousin being mocked for wanting to play with the boys at her school and run around, rather than sitting with the girls. This clear presence of these stereotypes from such a young age in our society is frightening. I don’t know about you, but this appalls me to know that events like this continue to occur in our society. I want us as the next generation to be blissfully unaware of what it feels like to be discriminated against due to our gender.

If we act now, we will soon see a difference.

However, the power of the concept of ‘genderless parenting’ or acting in a ‘gender neutral’ way has made the future more positive and optimistic for us all as a potential solution. Through this, we can allow us all to grow up under no gender norms, choose the media we expose ourselves to and use neutral room decoration to prevent us from being forced under these dangerous images. As we achieve this, we will reduce the pressure of having to conform to these strict expectations and remove the importance of gender and shift it towards the beauty of the individual. We will create a future generation full of agents of gender equality, let us all be our true selves, build our confidence and self-esteem and let the power of expression pursue.

The society we are living in now is damaging us more by the day, allowing ourselves to fall into the trap of these stereotypes and obliviously continue to portray these. If we do not act now, we will not be able to stop this immense threat from taking over our society entirely. As I look around, I see the foundations of the frightening scenes of Gilead from ‘The Handmaids Tale’. We are the agents which are vital in preventing our next generation are not full of ‘Janines’ and ‘Offreds’, confined by their white wings and we need to ensure that diversity can blossom instead.

Break the norm, challenge the expectations and focus on the beauty of the individual instead, so we can all embrace a genderless future.

Quotes on opinions on a genderless future

• Nell- ‘Gender as an identity and the things associated like positive feminity and positive masculinity can be good as they can help people feel comfortable in their bodies and expressing who they are but it’s easy for those to tip into toxicity which creates bad stereotypes, like men not showing emotions meaning they’re strong, or that women are overly emotional. They can ruin mental health and leave people who are gender non-conforming stuck in a void where they don’t have anything to associate themselves with which makes it easy for them to feel like they're ‘broken’ or ‘wrong’ in some way.’
• Earl – ‘So a genderless future might not entail wiping out the concept of gender, but rather being as free and open as possible for people to explore themselves fully. In the context of raising children, this may mean not assigning them a gender at birth and instead educating them about all gender labels and identities.’
• - ‘To me, ‘gender’ is a combination of three things: how you view yourself, how you express yourself and how others view you.’