Gender Myths: A lot needs to be done

As we become adults we realise that there were a lot of things that were taught and embedded within us since childhood as a rule for both the genders. However, no one has ever been able to raise their voice against it. Today at American Centre, New Delhi, Gunjan Sharma who is an IVLP Alumna spoke to the audience present there about the root cause of the various myths we have ever come across about both the genders.

The discussion began with a few people but as the event caught momentum, it witnessed a lot of people getting attracted to the topic of ‘Busting Gender Myths’. Interestingly, if we talk about 100 people being there, 85 were men who were enthusiastically participating in the entire session. Out of the various myths that were spoken about, few of them seriously caught attention of everyone present there: Women take a lot of time to get ready, Men have higher sex drive and women are meant just for household work.

It was interesting to see that a lot of guys agreed to the fact that girls dress to impress, however, girls were opposing to it and how the guys also agreed that sex drive is a biological condition and is high in men. Few out of many men in the audience said that a man doesn’t know how to control, however, women know how to hide such emotions. Through this conversation another topic popped up, wherein, people were talking about guys being open about their sexual drive unlike women and as the discussion came to an end it was observed that it is the society, that has made all these rules and regulations for men and women both.

Gunjan Sharma, IVLP Alumna talks on Gender Myths at American Centre, New Delhi

As the interaction went on, a lot was discussed, more about such myths or issues that we tackle in our day to day life. The event got over but it left a lot of things at open ended note and confusion as well. As we went on to speak to a lot of people out there, we got these reactions:

Lakshya who is a regular visitor of American Centre says that the event focussed on a lot of issues and couldn’t get anything to an end or a solution or a step towards it. It isn’t that people aren’t aware of these myths and the fact that they have just been created by the society but we need to step towards eradicating these issues by handling one topic at one time.

Youngsters discussing the various myths and its basis.

Whereas Apurva, Himanshu and Ashish- three friends who were at American Centre just for this session said, “The need of such interactive events is high at this time as there are a lot of issues we come across, but what is upsetting is the fact that only a section of people are being targeted, whereas, more than half of the problem lies in the rural areas which are never part of such events, wherever you go. So, there should be a platform wherein all strata of people are sitting together and talking about these issues.”

However, these people also agree that probably with such events there would be more of a talk about it and even if one person’s perception is changed toward the opposite gender, the target is achieved. It is just a step to recognise and realise and a lot has still to be worked upon. We don’t know if the ‘Myths of Gender’ have been busted or not but we surely realised that the youngsters are willing to take an action against it and are ready to treat the other gender equally. We are hoping that such events happen more frequently and in remote areas as well.

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