Explorations

The elegance and beauty of the female brain

Through dissecting gender norms, I explore how societal expectations and discrimination continue to shape the female experience in a world striving for equality.

When I was a little girl, I remember being told quite often that I should be aware of how revealing my wardrobe is. How much makeup I am wearing, or how intense I am behaving. People would say that it is distracting to boys when they are in school.

Sadly, I never heard anyone try to teach a boy not only that they should respect women and look to them for intellectual guidance. Since it’s scientifically proven that the female brain matures faster than the male. But also that they shouldn’t be viewing us as distracting sexual objects.

As a result of this misguided message, women are viewed as a trophy or accessory for a man. Other terms that come to mind are: “bitchy”, “too much”, “bossy”, “confrontational”, or “stubborn”.
Ironically, when men present the same behaviour that usually gives us these titles, they are said to be “determined”, “a leader”, “well-spoken”, or “hard-working”.

How gender discrimination is portrayed in society

A consistent example of women being negatively targeted in our society is prevalent in our female celebrities. In interviews, they often receive questions about the outfit they are wearing, the fitness regime they follow. What diet they are restricted to for maintaining their figure. Or my favourite, “are you dating anyone new”. They are rarely asked about their career goals and opinions on current social issues.

One of my favourite interviews was with Simone Biles. When the interviewer commented on her lack of smiling during routines, Biles responded: “smiling doesn’t win you gold medals.”
In this interview, Biles was able to break the lens that is typically looked through when reviewing a woman. We are beautiful and elegant. But we are also powerful, determined, disciplined, and honourable.

Female celebrities are constantly bombarded on the red carpet, being asked about their romantic life or if they will be “leaving with lots of men tonight”.
The key focus is always about who they will be the trophy for, not that they are their own trophy.

Gender norms: it’s a man’s world. . . so let’s make it ours too

By dissecting gender norms, we uncover how we live in a world defined and constructed by men, from the language to the ground we walk on. Yet they are utterly confused to find us questioning everything around us. In a global society dominated by men, women are often criticised when doing something that was assumed to only be possible by a man.

Every success or power move beyond a man’s comfort level is questioned, every opinion verbalised in an important room is critiqued. And every social step-forward is categorised as a “female revolution of empowerment”, since any progress from zero is applaudable.

We shouldn’t be settling for minor improvements in our system, and we shouldn’t have to answer to every man who interrogates our purpose in the field he generally occupies. We have normalized our whispers as a way of accommodating men, avoiding the offensive titles they have given us.

Since it’s brutally obvious that men don’t have any agenda to flip the conversation, rather than adapting to our gender-exclusive environment, it’s time we counteract their close-minded reality with the truth of what being a woman truly means.

We live in a world paved for men. Although women have made great leaps in upheaving this pavement, we still have a long way to go.

Don’t forget the beauty, and elegance within your mind that makes you a woman. Most importantly, don’t forget to speak your mind unapologetically. No more whispers.

✍️ A piece written by Gavriel Ewart. An American girl studying fashion and communication at Cattolica university in Milan and interning for suite123