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Manhood
"...Being a man is not that easy. You can’t show your emotions to other people. You can’t be weak..."
By Noel Ramon
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Youth Radio's Noel Ramon disagrees with world of gender roles. He feels that men and women are completely equal and should not take on duties due to their sex. He says, "I hear my dad say to my sister that she should wash the dishes or clean the house because she’s the girl of the house."
This is the question I asked my friends, what is it like to be a man? Ever since I’ve been growing up I keep wondering what’s the role of being a man. I still keep asking myself this question because I just don’t get the whole point of being a man. It’s not that I’m not ok with being a man but I’m just not okay with the different roles that women and men have to play. I totally agree that we all should have the same rights and everyone’s able to do what they want and not what society wants. When I asked my friends what it’s like to be a man they answered:
To me, Being a man should mean having responsibilities and strength, but not Privileges or the power to call ourselves machistas over women.
After these first interviews, more questions started to pop up for me. There was one question that I just couldn’t ignore: who taught these men to be men?
There have been many improvements in our society in terms of the role of women and men. But we still have a long ways to go.
A lot of men look at the distribution of labor in a machista way. Women can do any kind of job they want, it’s just that sexism in the workplace hold women back.
In my opinion we all have the same abilities to get something done its just the sexist distribution of labor that keeps someone from doing it or the fact that we’re all used to see it that way.
I hear my dad say to my sister that she should wash the dishes or clean the house because she’s the girl of the house. This is inequality. We should have the same rights and not just because you are a girl or a boy should follow society’s rules. I feel like my dad is not being fair to my sister : why should he make her do that? When I hear him say that, I always try to tell him that I could do it.
But for some reason, I stop myself from defending her sometimes. I hesitate because… in a way, that’s the way I grew up. Those are the gender roles I learned about. I’m not outside of it.
In my own personal experience I learned that being a man is not that easy. You can’t show your emotions to other people. You can’t be weak. You can’t cry. You can’t act like a girl – stereotypically delicate and soft. If you act that way, people will call you gay.
I’m frustrated with how patriarchy or sexism play a big role within our lives. Why can’t we decide how we’re going to appear in society?
I’m doing this story because I just hate the whole effect that machismo causes on women. I would love to make those who think like me, to keep doing what they’re supposed to and not make women feel less than men…we’re all the same. I’ve learned to love my sister, we support each other and I would never like to see the effect that machismo could cause on her. I think machismo is as bad as racism.
I’ve being a witness of the effect that machismo causes on women. What most people don’t realize is that men are as affected by machismo as well. By examining the ways we as men have learned to be men, I can see better how machismo works in all of our lives.
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