I Don’t Want To “Man up” Anymore

Prepared by: Pulkit Mahajan, Beat Sexism India

“Man up” may seem like a harmless way to tell a man to step up to his responsibilities, to be strong, or to show fewer emotions, but the phrase itself implies that doing any of these things is gender-specific.

Being a man myself, I’ve been told all of the stuff mentioned above. My mom said that I shouldn’t cry because “It’s not man-like”. Unfortunately, like my mom, most parents fail to understand the consequences of teaching children things like that.

Because I was told to be a man since I can remember, I realized that I kept telling myself to refrain from displaying emotions for most of my life. I kept myself from crying or even acting hurt when something wrong would happen. Keeping all of those things inside takes a real toll on you, your mental and physical health.

I stopped using…