Gender war
Used to curse myself for being born the fairer sex....let's see, there were various disadvantages and inconveniences including:1. Dresses
Mum's insistence of filling my wardrobe with dresses!!!! and dresses only....no shorts/ jeans!!! can you believe what living hell that was???
When you're tiny and fidgety with sweat glands working overdrive, delicate frilly frocks with stupid elastic bands at the worst of places are the most cruel things you can cloth a child in...particularly at that period when air-conditioning was limited to the only shopping mall on penang island!
Remember when once some well-meaning relative forced me into this ugly navy blue and white spaghetti strap thingy and I just burst into tears...and instead of being able to take it off...was sushed by mum to stop sobbing as the "thing" cost a bomb and that i should meekly thank said relative!! the only good thing from that episode was that no other relatives felt they should squander good money only to receive such an outburst from an inconsiderate ungrateful brat....tee hee....works well both ways, so no complaints! :)
2. Dolls and masak-masak items
I hated barbie dolls...but had at least 4 of them (one thing i do not lack of are well-meaning relatives)!! why should i have dolls with long hair when i myself had my locks cropped really short? and they were boring to say the least. it was good that i had a brother who was equipped with more interesting toys - i.e. an assortment of marbles, an army of soldiers and a tribe of red indian mini figurines and, many sets of lego!!!! at least that was a little more mind stimulating and tonnes more fun than idiot dolls...and oh of course....those classic matchbox cars.....they were and still are damn cool.
3. Never ever could go out on my own
Yup...even back then, before heinous deeds were ever so common in the daily tabloids, my parents were cautious. I was always only allowed to play in the house...whereas bro could conveniently pop out with friends/ cycle around etc. and the reason given was because I was a girl!!!! oh puhleez
4. Girly pursuits
Adults naturally expected me to be enthusiastic and excel at girly pusuits such as sewing...sigh...Let's not even go there. I can mend buttons but that's about it. Obviously Kemahiran Hidup was of little success....everytime I used the sewing machine (the old manual ones, mind you) ...i had to make sure that the first aid box was within easy reach. Even easy cross stitch proved to be a huge challenge...hey no one said that there was such a thing as pulling your stitches "too hard"!
Yes....petty as the above sounds....I hated being a girl and was envious at the many things boys were able to do. And looking back, m thankful that the gender stereotype in my family were limited to only the petty things above. There wasn't any nonsense of favouring my bro over me, nor over what my ambitions were.
It wasn't till I hit my late teens that I slowly noticed that being a girl had benefits too...hehehehehehe.....nope...cannot deny that attention (positive ones) can be nice, but hey....after many years of grief...its payback time!
I guess, kids nowadays aren't as stereotyped by gender as they used to be. At the very least, believe that there are very few families nowadays imposing a "dresses-only-policy" for their little girls. With regards to freedom....i guess parents nowadays are as cautious of the safety of their little boys as of their little girls.
After all, why should life ever be dictated by gender?
munsta ramblings @ 10:19 pm
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home