A Woman’s Mental Health Struggles

Coming from a purely patriarchal society, women are so boxed into stereotypes. You have to be femininely pretty, sexy, soft spoken, quiet many times and patient martyr housewives. Such is the misogynistic view that the generation before us has embedded in us. Even sexism and being fantasy objects like in liquor calendars and advertisements are demeaning of respect.

March is woman’s month, but we recently get these misogynistic remarks wanting to propagate through seminal distribution and the lewd designs meant by imagining a beautiful woman. There’s these people commenting that it is because of what women wear nowadays.

I think, even without wearing those sexy outfits, a misogynist will always be a misogynist. That rape is a crime and will always be a crime, whatever one woman wants to wear. Rape is the greatest trauma a woman could ever have.

In this time and era, women like Miriam Defensor Santiago could have survived to show us of her empowering nature – jokes the good and respectable way. Anne Curtis stood up for herself and for the entirety of women with words of empowerment. Artists alike, have spoken to support fellow women.

Besides being able to bear a child, what else do we expect out of our women? Is bearing a child in your womb the only guideline for defining a woman? What happens to people who don’t bear children or lose their children somehow, aren’t they women enough? If they haven’t been housewives who cook meals and become submissive agents of their husbands, are they less of a woman?

With all these stereotyping thoughts about womanhood, mental health is a struggle. To find oneself and one’s identity in being an inborn female is another tedious journey of becoming. To be a woman is like living in a society where you are expected to keep your sanity despite all the noise disturbing your peace inside and outside. You are expected so much yet must shine less than our male counterparts. But we don’t have to.

The real essence of being a woman, I think, is to inspire and empower other women. We don’t become teachers, leaders and frontrunners for our own selves. We are here to pioneer to empower women with inclusivity and despite disability.

We are not here to compete, but to lift each other up. We start with ourselves to make change and replicate ourselves for the future. It may be through our writings, our arts, our careers and everything we want to achieve not only in the reproduction department.

I respect women who don’t do stuff for the show but those willing to go an extra mile or even to the sidelines to offer support to give the stage to empower fellow women. That way, I think we will be empowering each other – both men and women to respect us.

Then, I guess, my mental health and your mental health as a woman would be better – no more “Sisa-like” stories brought by the ills of a patriarchal society. I hope every woman lifts each other to let others shine too in their unique way.

Happy Women’s Month! I hope we are given enough courage and confidence to be the woman we want to become and eventually become who we want. Only then will our struggles as women and men inclusively mend and heal our mental health woes.