Breaking My Gender-Stereotype Issue Through Sewing.

Don't think of me as biased, but I know the fact that I live gender is something as always in its move. I saw that some women had the capacity and worked somehow hard for us, the men. For some men, there was a particular job for dudes; most of it was hard to carry one, and a light one was for women. There was this thing in my mind as this was work for women and this was for men, and I must be on the side of men and learn the position and distance myself from the work of the opposite gender. Also, the kind of culture that I lived with somehow influenced me.

When I was in elementary (primary grade), there was a subject that we needed to work with called "Technology Livelihood Education", which focused on household things, like sewing and everything. I remember my teacher saying, "Sewing for the ladies, not gentlemen, " so we just watched the other ladies of the same age do the job, and they did the same when we do the activity for men. Also, when I was little, I was the curious little devil and often asked my mother why the tailor was an uncle, for he knew how to sew dresses and everything. The idea was that creating a dress is a job for women, and I found that men can do the same.

I made my mother request a sewing machine for her leisure time, not directly as she said I should buy her, but the signal showed, and I got that. So I looked online to see if there was a deal, sales, and drop the price, and I was happy to have one, and I received the package. The thing that I worried about not telling her is that she should wait to open the box. I am worried that the container might be broken and not working as I don't have evidence to show for the review, but lucky the package arrived safely.

Comes the next challenge was how to operate the machine. My mother wasn't that literate when it came to that kind of stuff, so I always understood her when she wanted me to read the instructions. I tried translating them into our local dialect (Ilokano), so I needed to research some techniques and move so the machine would work well, how to change the needles and everything.

YouTube as one of the tools that were a great platform to work with, watch and learn from professionals, and one that caught my attention is that; there was a number of male influencers on Youtube who took the content of how they sew there all around outfit and look at the views some also had a million and thousands of views, which meant that might be there was a large number of male who was working and creating an idea in sewing.

This gives me something in my mind, why am I not? I am the type of person who prefers minimal, and hard to find the shirt and shorts that I want, of the fabric, style, and length. Why not try to make a new thing? Why not learn for me to have my kind of apparel? Like I own myself a design.

But I know that I wouldn't be better than them in one sleep, and it will take years to develop. In my free time and after lunch, I made sure that I got familiarized with some tricks and techniques on how to use the machine. I can use it to have my things in my life, could also use it to fix my shirts and garments.

The best side of improvement was my gender stereotype. As the days passed, I could learn more things and understood the nature beneath. I am just human, and there will always be this insecurity that I have, one of which is doing this that is not my nature as men.

This is a great advantage for us, knowing that the internet shows other things, not just what we see and have.

I am trying my best to learn, adapt and change. I am honest with you that I was caged for the past years that sewing and playing with the needles was a toy for girls and balls just for boys.

How about you? What was this habit or doing that you were trying to avoid thinking it's not your forte and belonging?