The Philippines’ Olympic run abolishes gender stereotypes

A historic run

A female weightlifter. A female boxer. Both excelling on the world stage. What a time to be alive.

I was born in the 90s, which means I grew up during a weird time when it comes to society’s perception of gender roles. While I had awesome, open-minded parents, a good chunk of my life still experienced semblances of what society perceives a man and a woman can and cannot do – leftovers from a time of Maria Claras and machismo attitudes.

A man has to be supposedly strong, stiff, and immune to feelings of vulnerability. Basketball was the sport, and anything else, such as dancing and volleyball, where suspect.

A woman has to like the color pink, to be prim and proper, where wearing anything revealing would merit a raised eyebrow at the least. Being brash, outspoken, or *gasp* not demure would be labeled as malandi or improper.

It’s a byproduct of living in a notoriously conservative society. Today, the culture has (thankfully) become more accepting, even if there is still a long way to go before gender stereotypes are ditched altogether.

But with the Philippines’ historic run at the Tokyo Olympics, headlined by strong performances from female athletes in ‘unconventional’ sports, here’s hoping the road to get there becomes easier.

The past week has proven that a woman can be powerful, such as Hidlyn Diaz, the country’s first-ever gold medalist. A woman can knock you on your ass, like Nesthy Petecio, the first Filipina boxer to win silver. They can also be talented goofballs like skateboarder Margielyn Didal. And a man can be graceful, such as Carlos Yulo.

Going by traditional notions, none of these athletes fit the bill. Nor would they be accepted by society. But that did not stop them from succeeding, nor from being celebrated.

To be clear, there is nothing wrong with being reserved as a woman or being a manly man. But when society dictates that genders cannot be more than that, and penalizes them for going beyond, then it becomes a problem.

Gender stereotypes miss out on one crucial thing: people are not pre-packaged androids. We are not brought into this world programmed with things that we can and cannot do.

Instead, we are human, which means that we have the potential for infinite possibilities, just as how we are shaped by our race, culture, and upbringing, among other things. The circumstances of our birth provide us with a starting point, but they are hardly the template of what we can – and should – be.

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Source: we the pvblic