As per Wikipedia definition “Gender policing is the imposition or enforcement of normative gender expressions on an individual who is perceived as not adequately performing, through appearance or behavior, the sex that was assigned to them at birth”… she should behave like a girl… he can do it, he is a boy. Since my childhood I have heard so many of such comments, believe it or not most of them came from my mother. Fortunately my father was a bit progressive in his thoughts and he did not bother much about whether a girl should behave typically like one. In our society, gender policing is more strictly implemented by women than men and applied mostly to women than men. The question is… why? Probably because we are taught that way, so the answer lies in education. Only proper education can change this or I should say improve the situation, changing it would be a far cry. Because my mother was brought up in that way where she had to behave like a typical girl, wear girly clothes, be shy, listen to every elder in the family, be obedient, help her mother in the kitchen and household, be ready for marriage when parents thought she should be, keep no ambition for higher education, look beautiful but keep only girl friends, no boys to be seen around her, etc., etc. she could never accept the rebel I was. This is true for many other girls across the globe where they are often misunderstood because they did not conform to their typical gender behavior. Is it not enough to feel like a woman from within rather than behaving like any? The case is worse in case of boys though; they are often called effeminate or even gay if they fail to behave like a typical male. [Read more…]