Trying to remain sane in an insane world.

The other day I caught my 4 years old niece saying to a boy in school:
- Hey, boys don't play with pink whistles.
- Why? - I curiously intervene.

- I don't know - she answered confused while uplifting her shoulders - they just don't.  

- What if they really like pink whistles? - I asked with a timid smile.

- Them they should!!! - she answer with an enormous smile on her face while running away to whatever she was playing before. (GOD, I just love her!!)

It was already 45 years that Rosenhan experiment showed that after being labeled insane in a psychiatric hospital it was impossible for a sane person to prove his sanity. The experimenters feigned hallucinations to enter the hospital and acted normally all the time afterwards. They could never get out again. After this amazing illustration of the importance of labelling we still label, on the simplistic basis of gender the babies even before they are born!!!

"You are so emotional! You are so sensitive, you are clearly overreacting. Chill out, Relax. Girls, they are just so cute with their emotional dramas and dolls (pet in the head)."

These are just some of the things I heard as a girls (and now woman. I hated though. In my family, intimate relationships and even at work. I still hear it, mostly from man. Father, teachers, boyfriends, work colleagues, or even friends. Usually, male friends, when I make a request or a question to which they don't have a proper response. I do not blame them though. However, I do not understand the general Unconsciousness around this subject in 2019. 

Curiously, throughout life I have seen numerous of my male friends telling stories of how they kicked or punched (or did something really stupid) to another because of an insult or some misunderstanding. However, in their stories they never overreact or were emotional. Neither to them nor to whomever hears the story. They were being boys (or man). Hum, I never kicked or punched anyone in my life. In fact I don't like violence, it kind of makes me sad. Maybe that's why I am the unreasonable emotional person.

The GOOD news is that eventually I found friends that showed me that it was ok to CARE, or to FEEL things, to ENJOY things. So I end up developing the courage be a human being, in particular a woman, that does feel emotions and cares about people, animals, unicorns and small cute little things. The BAD news is that we are still so far away from gender equality and we don't even know (or care about) it!

I do hope this changes so that we can finally just play with whatever we LOVE (or want).