As the first rays of morning light seeped through the curtains, Jude’s eyes fluttered open. He grudgingly turned and looked at the digital clock on his bedside reading 6:30 AM. He woke up reluctantly awaiting his tiring day at work from 9 am to 5 pm. Apathetically, he rose from his bed and washed himself up for his tiring day. He wore stiff pants, a tie that almost choked him, and a tight white shirt. Jude slathered the peanut butter on the bread for breakfast and rushed out of the house so he could make it on time to his corporate job.
While walking to the bus stop, he receives a call from his mother. Jude picks up and exchanges casual pleasantries every morning as he lives away from home. After the usual pleasantries, his mother inquired, “Will you be getting a raise in your salary any time soon? We will be needing more money for your sister’s wedding.” in a polite manner. Jude replies hesitantly, “Mother I will not be getting a raise in my salary but I will make sure you will get the money required for my sister’s marriage”. He hangs up the phone as the bus he has to board to the office reaches the bus stop.
Jude entered the bus and sighed at the crowd that swamped his vicinity. He stood amidst the crowd as he suddenly felt a lingering feeling on his legs and nauseousness in his stomach. With a confused frown on his face, he looked down, to find a stranger's hand trying to place his hands where it was not meant to be. Revoltingly, he pushed the stranger’s hand and moved away from him. Jude felt an array of emotions ranging from awkwardness to anger but also suppressed his emotions by reminding himself that this is a frequent occurrence and expressing his emotions will not yield him anything.
Following a long and tiresome journey, Jude reached his office covered in droplets of perspiration dripping from his forehead across his face. He walked in, smiled at everyone, and sat on his assigned desk to log into his day of duty. Long after a day filled with tasks, projects, and duties as soon as the clock strikes 5 o’clock, Jude picks up his bag and rushes outside the gates of his prison. While walking back to the bus stop, he sees a small park and decides to relax there for some time instead of going back to his gloomy house of no human interaction.
Jude takes a big sigh of relief and sits on the bench and witnesses nature and society. He is smiling at the energetic and innocent young boy running around the park while his mother is tiredly tailing him around. Jude reminisces about himself as a kid and yearns fervently to leap back to those good old days. When he is deeply caught up in memories and nostalgia, he suddenly hears a loud cry and comes back to his present life. The young boy had tripped and fell and burst into tears. His mother holds him with her affectionate hands and says “Boys do not cry.”
As Jude hears these words, he thinks to himself, this is where the pressure of being a man starts. Firstly, we are taught not to cry in any emotional distress at a very young age because we are ‘men’. This inculcates the practice of suppressing our negative emotions and moving on after any distress like nothing ever happened. From small failures to sexual harassment, we believe that we should not react and give any importance to our sadness. Later, we are taught that we have to be the breadwinners of the family and earn money till our family is settled. We are not allowed to have dreams of our own, our only passion and source of respect is based on earning sufficient money for our family. After all these thoughts, Jude starts walking to the bus stop thinking of his next day at work.
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When the word “Gender Discrimination” hits our ear, the next word that simultaneously pops up in our mind is women. Sometimes, we fail to acknowledge the barriers set by society on the other prevailing gender, men. Discrimination against men can be seen on an everyday basis from emotional expression to legal proceedings. We should make more effort to highlight the effects of gender discrimination against men and take the essential steps. Even the small steps we take as social citizens, ranging from educating ourselves about gender discrimination against men to creating awareness in our society, play a role in building an equal society.
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