Smash Your Boxes!
Labels & Expectation
Smash your boxes! Boxes are limitations that keep us divided and living small. Each one of the boxes has a label, with how-to instructions that clearly define what is acceptable. For example, if I were to ask you to describe a typical day, most of us would visually separate areas and use labels to define them. I did this very thing when someone was asked me this question. My immediate response was; wife, mom, employee, student, caretaker. Instantly, I labeled and boxed myself into specific societal expectations. The most alarming was that the automatic thought process I used to come up with an answer felt normal; I did not stop to question the many ways in which I limit myself.
Where Do These Boxes Come From?
Boxes are labels or expectations that we assign to ourselves, or society has pre-assigned to us. The description itself may not be harmful, but the hope for acceptance may make it so. One example, a woman is a neutral description, but if I add the word young or old in front of the term woman, then the meaning may change. For society has repeatedly shown us that a young woman if favored more than an old woman. The real danger comes when, collectively, women believe the labels and expectations to be authentic. And it is here where the assigned boxes become limitations that keep us divided and living small. on another woman’s worth.
How Do The Boxes Limit and Divide Women?
One of the ways labels and expectations limit and divide women is by perpetuating a mindset of not being enough. Because women often compare themselves to the ‘ideal’ (add whatever name you want here) when one doesn’t live up to the expectation, they question if they are good enough. For example, a study on bias towards aging women showed that ‘older’ women will leave friendships of same-aged women for friendships with younger women. The purpose is that by being associated with younger women, they are now seen as ‘young.’
This division could be linked to loneliness as women age. The truth is, every woman is enough, just as she is. She can do and be anything she wants; wear a bikini at 80, style your hair, however, makes you feel good. Every woman out there can define who she is, without having to justify her reasoning. Listen; you are 1 in 7,665,957,369; there is no one like you! Celebrate and be who you were created to be!