Freedom from toxic stereotypes

By Khushi Rawal

(Image source: ideas.ted.com)

After 73 years of independence in order to analyze our growth and the freedom we’ve gotten since then, we have to take into consideration all the possible aspects in which we’ve seen changes and developments in our country. It would be appropriate to say that we’ve all faced our fair share of struggles and difficulties to become a part of this social, economic and political growth of the greater nation. In order to evaluate our growth we must see the place we’ve come from and compare it to the point where we’ve reached in these 7 decades.

If for a moment we were to keep all the social every action they take and every word they speak. Since the beginning of time, ​the society has been training women to apologize for someone else’s wrong deeds​, it is taught to people that if a girl is raped it is somehow her fault and she is expected to repent herself for someone else’s sin. Except for this, ​anyone who tries to question the norms our society had established, is humiliated​, for instance, if a man decides that he wants to wear a skirt or he wants to become a makeup artist, he is ridiculed just for wanting to do what he likes. A girl wearing clothes that the society says is for males is called a tomboyish or is made fun of just because our minds have been trained to recognize and apply these gender roles in our lives. People get ​body shamed,​ or discriminated based on their skin​ ​tones​, just because the society says that fair skin and a slim body is better than everything. We are taught that ​the amount of money we earn, rather than our personality and our deeds gets to decide the respect we deserve​, and it tells how good we are as a person. For a really long time now, the societal norm to marry a person from the same caste has caused an increase in social evils like honor killing, just to make sure that these norms aren’t broken, families brutally murder their own children.

In the last 7 decades these ​toxic stereotypes have made growth and freedom of choice extremely difficult,​ but the current generations have worked their way through these unnecessary and degrading norms and stereotypes and have increased ​acceptance for normalizing the fact that people can choose the way they want to live their life, everyone has the right to choose their clothes, their lifestyle and that everyone is equal regardless of their sexual orientation, religion, skin colour and economic status​. We must also note that it is very easy to criticize the social activists, the judiciary and the citizens, and the government but we should take a moment to appreciate the remarkable journey we’ve all taken part in by doing our bit and working to become the reason our nation will continue to prosper in all aspects and even if we all have come a long way, the journey that lies ahead of us will be complicated and full of difficulties but it will always be worthwhile. This independence day we seek for Independence from things that still dominate our society. ​This independence day, we seek independence for our people to live free.