Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico
First, I want to a little about me, I am a young girl and I live in Tijuana, a Mexican city on the border; and I have started to see how the patriarchy and sexism affect everyone personally. In Mexico there’s a huge influence of the gender roles, usually, the women are housekeepers where the men go to work because they teach us to. (luckily my parents understand that I preferred dinosaurs over tea cups and pink dishes) If you go to the aisle of girl toys in the markets where most of the people go you will see dolls, babies, dishes, and for the most wealthy kitchens, all in pink and purple colors; and for the boys you find cars, kits of tools, medical instruments and legos. Do you see the difference?
But there is more. I grew up hearing *close your legs, the good girls don’t sit like this*, *the blue? what about the pink one, the girls like those more*, *robotics, don’t you prefer Ballet?* and I can go for long, in my school we have to use uniforms, I wouldn’t of had a problem with that if they were the same, but the boys use pants and the girls skirts, the worst are the comments, *It is too short, Do you want to impress the boys?* or *It is too long, you seem like a nun*. In my classroom we always were very united, but in the last months we are separating the boys and girls, we don’t play together, and don’t talk as we used to do. Personally, I had a best friend in the last grades, but now I cant talk to him as a friend because my friends start to annoy and spread gossips.
I’m tired and angry of that, it’s exhausting once you know what is happening, and you are part of it.
That’s why I’m going to change the minds of the people, even if I have to start with those around me.