Casual sexism is anything that involves treating a person of any gender in a discriminatory way. Both men and women equally face casual sexism. It can be seen in different forms. Mostly in our society, it’s seen in the form of harmless jokes but if we try to stretch this joke a bit, it may turn into harassment. The Birth of casual sexism is through gender stereotypes. It is more like casual sexism is rooted in a gender stereotype. It is like assigning fixed roles to men and women and then there comes casual sexism. It is like making jokes or making the individual of the opposite gender feel inferior. Casual sexism is practiced in our daily day-to-day lives but for a fact, we never realize that at some point we are doing something which is not appropriate, which is something that we stand against, and WE NEED TO STOP. And the moment we realize, it’s too late. And then we shall be ready for consequences which might look very small for us but it may be as huge as breaking an iPhone for the other individual who just got trapped into casual sexism.
HOW UNCONSCIOUSLY WE MAKE SUCH JUDGEMENTS:-
In today’s society, we all must have heard some judgmental statements of both men and women such as:-
So these kinds of comments have always been heard in our society, based on an individual’s likes or dislikes or on His/her appearance, on their career choice and many more. If a girl looks healthy and then people start body shaming it and if someone opposes their views then they try to defend it by saying that they are concerned about their life. Gaining weight can lead to them having tons of diseases in their body. This is my viewpoint is right. You should have concern for your beloved ones, but that’s not the way how you should show your concern. Continuously body shaming someone doesn’t show your concern towards them. It shows how much embarrassed you are by their appearance. Telling women that they need to lose weight so that they could get more marriage proposals, wouldn’t act quite motivating for them, encouraging them to lose weight so that they could feel more confident about themselves would be quite helpful.
Women in our society constantly get nagged about getting married and have children as soon as possible. After hitting their twenties they are constantly being asked about their partners or about having some future plans as if women are only meant to get married and have children as if their worth only lies in having a family and legit nothing beyond.
Unfortunately in this world of 21st-century people believe that getting married and having children what makes women alive. Their whole existence depends upon if they are married or not. And if they don’t have their own child and are unmarried then their life is unfulfilled and they are known as “unwoman, to borrow Margaret Atwood’s phrase. And My dear ladies, if someone gets too much into your nerves then that’s the time to take a stand for your existence by saying “ I would get married and have children considering my own life’s terms and conditions. But right now I am too busy smashing that patriarchy bubble present in our society and inside everybody’s mind which tells me that my self-worth fully lies in my ability to be a wife and a mother”. Talking back after they make some sexist comment will help them in keeping their mouth shut. Remaining silent would only give them more and more authority and domination. So, this is how casual sexism takes place. Unconsciously, unintentionally we become a part of such situations. Every time, our conscious mind reminds us whenever we are going somewhere wrong, but that’s when our unconscious mind comes into form and tells us that c’mon it is just a joke and it won’t harm anyone.
That’s where every time we get wrong. We don’t always have any idea that what’s going inside someone’s mind. Some people might confront you about getting hurt but some people might get hurt in silence and would like to heal in silence and the process of healing is always very difficult.
Gender Stereotypes and casual sexism both are kind of interlinked. Casual sexism took birth after Gender stereotypes came into being. So, casual sexism could lose its power after gender stereotypes lose their existence. We all are aware of the fact that this won’t happen so soon. This would take some time and would also take some patience but these need to get improved. People facing these kinds of issues can’t live like this anymore. They want to live their life beyond assumptions and beyond boundaries which is set by some people who had no idea back then about someone’s personal choice and preferences and we foolish people are taking forward such ideas and beliefs. We work on these issues together, and then our hard work would show results. And in a result, we would have a country where everybody has equality and where everyone is living their life to its fullest.
