Gender Equality: perspective of a mental health advocate

 

Being feminist as well as a young mental health advocate, I would like to take up the topic of gender sensitivity from a mental health perspective. Well, the first thing I will be talking about is why males are not expected to have mental illness. Men don’t cry, they cannot show their emotions to the world, all the time they are supposed to act strong or shall I say “manly”. It is really important that we understand that it is human to express what you feel and not weak. There have been times that at such a young age we would refer to boys who cry as “girls”, and it is not okay. It is high time and now we should start accepting that boys do suffer from mental illness. 

Moving on to women, the females have been prone to mental illness since a very long time now, whether the reason being domestic violence, not being able to pursue the career they want to because of family pressures, seeing their brothers getting more liberty than they were given or the reason being in the workspace like sexual harassment, unequal pay and the list is endless. Well, in the first case I talked about society being unacceptable of men having mental illness, but here, the case is even worse and that is society being totally unbothered and normalizing women having mental illness, because well, according to them, it is usual for women to deal with depression because it is usual for them to deal with suppression. To be honest, being gender neutral is the sole solution to end these stereotypes in the society. 

Talking about LGBTQ, it is no exception to mental illness, we all are aware of the suppression they face in the society, we all are aware how hostile the society has been for them and hence being gender neutral is very important. Schools are where the initial stages of our lives are spent, they shape our ideas and impact the way we perceive the world.

Bullying has been one of the most devastating experiences for the victims affecting their mental health. There have been times when a girl was body shamed, when a boy was called a “transgender” because he was creative and loved creating artworks, there have been times when avengers’ schoolbags were meant for boys and not girls even if they loved it and hence were bullied. You never know how it impacts the other person and so awareness regarding gender equality becomes extremely essential.

I have always believed we all have one thing in common and that is we all are humans, we all face issues and difficulties in life, we all want to let it out but some stay quiet because it won’t be accepted and others stay quiet because there won’t be any use of speaking. Surrounded in a space full of fear of being judged, we forget that no one was given the right to judge us. Well in today’s world where the crowd watches the accident and no one comes to help the person even when they speak, they need help, so be that one person, who lends a helping hand, be the change, be gender neutral.

 

Deeksha Chopra