Pressure in our world

Our society is used to live following some laws and rules. And often individual has to choose: to do something the way he wants and to face with disapproval, condemnation and even hatred of society or to do something the way they expect, although he doesn’t like it. In this case we can say about pressure. I would like to consider one of the manifestations of this situation, which I have a deal with -gender-related stereotypes.

I suppose earlier stereotypes existed as obligatory rules for surviving of people. Now life has changed, but these rules remain in the collective memory. And often people can’t explain why they believe in these stereotypes at present time. For example, men’s part of our society is convinced women must do all housework and babysit. Many people also believe that success of woman’s life is defined by availability of husband and children. They assume woman has to look well always! At present time the number of women, who don’t agree with it or don’t conform to these requirements, is increasing due to changed living standards. And they often face with incredible pressure from the side of the community and with condemnation. Even relatives and friends can bother asking insensitive questions: when you are going to get married, when you are going to give birth.

I don’t realize why I have to explain to all the people why at the age of thirty I live alone with my cat, why I don’t agree to be a housewife, why I allow myself to argue with men and other things. I live the way I want, I don’t care what they say. But many women try to follow stereotypes and hope to deserve love of men or public this way. As a result women waste their time and energy living the way they don’t like, concern what people will say. They have low self-esteem. They are unhappy because they are afraid of disapproval or condemnation.

We will always be under the society’s pressure. But it doesn’t mean we have to do all the things, which are imposed by our society, because we can’t be beloved by everybody and it’s impossible to follow all the rules and feel good.