And then it hit me- you didn’t ask to be a man any more than I asked to be a woman. Wow, empathy. You have your pressure too. Suddenly my lonely road is not so lonely at all. Here we are both so weighed down by society expectations, standards, norms, tied to a concept we never even agreed to. Both of us, men and women and anyone in between or outside of those definitions. We may get benchmarked to different standards but we both get benchmarked all the same, when we all just entered this Earth as individuals and never asked for any of it. The struggle is the same. We get told what we can or should wear, how to look, how to act, what ‘self respect’, looks like, what to do with our sexuality, what life paths we should follow. We get told not to be like all men, or that women should be like this. By our parents, by media, the clothing sections in the stores. We get constantly compared. It is stifling! But it’s so healthy to consciously recognise that I didn’t agree to any of this so it has no control over me but none whatsoever. My image is mine to do with it whatever I wish, to use it, build it, let it go and change it at my will. And so is yours.