The society kept throwing so many unrealistic standards to the people, indirectly forcing people to keep pursuing perfection rather than staying true to themselves. I have wondered how all these unrealistic standards came to be, like who originated them and all that, but does it even matter? What matters is facing the challenging situation.
There are silent pressures everywhere that the society has subjected to the people. The way you dress and talk and the way you achieve things at certain stages of life are filled with pressures; the society just raises these expectations, and when you fail to meet up, they make you feel less of yourself. It is what it is, but in all, I have seen a lady who doesn't care about most of these unrealistic standards but stays true to herself regardless of the pressures around.
Take, for instance, our men are expected to get married at a certain age, and when you fail to meet up with this expectation, the society will see you as irresponsible. No one cares to know if you are good to go or not; they just have these high expectations. Ladies too receive so much pressure from the society when they get to a certain age in life without getting married. Some suffer depression due to what people say to them. Words like, "Your age isn't supposed to be living in your father's house by now." are mostly what you will be hearing .
Youths are being expected to make it in life as early as possible and start taking care of their aged parents; otherwise, you will be looked down on. This unrealistic expectation has pushed many to soil their hands with evils.
I know of a lady who, after she gave birth, added so much weight. Of course, it is expected scientifically due to postpartum fat, but surprisingly, she was facing pressure left and right. One person told her that with the added fat, she will soon lose her husband to side chicks who are still in good shape; therefore, she should do anything to return back to shape. This lady was overthinking the whole thing simply because of one rubbish unrealistic expectation. She gave in and started wearing waist trainers, a woman that freshly did Cs while birthing her baby. She skipped meals and drank all sorts of slimming herbs to return back to shape. Unfortunately, her health was affected in the process. Like, what manner of pressure is this? Funny enough, a lot of people give in to this pressure by society, all in the name of one standard to maintain.
I love the lady I mentioned earlier; her lifestyle is what most people in our society should follow. This lady is in her early 50s and chooses not to marry, but I love the way she didn't allow society to define her happiness, or toil with her emotions . She boldly lives her life like it is no man's business. Obviously, she prioritizes self-love over what society has to say. Very educated, beautiful, and with a great career, she is financially okay and God-fearing, but yet, she chooses not to marry. It is her choice, but the people will always talk. People gossip about her every time, but I guess they now got tired and let her live freely, but she didn't even care in the first place.
To pull through all of these unnecessary pressures and standards by the society, we need people to have more confidence like her. The moment we stop caring much about what others think about us and prioritize ourselves, the happier we will be in our society.
This post is in response to the #Hive Learners prompt on the topic title, UNREALISTIC STANDARDS.
Images were taken from canva