When we say, "Girls are nurturing and boys are ambitious. Girls are soft and boys are tough. Girls are emotional and boys are stoic," we are not telling truths, we are sharing beliefs -- beliefs that have become mandates. If these statements seem true, it's because everyone has been so well programmed. Human qualities are not gendered. What is gendered is permission to express certain traits. Why? Why would our culture prescribe such strict gender roles? And why would it be so important for our culture to label all tenderness and mercy as feminine? Because disallowing the expression of these qualities is the way the status quo keeps its power. In a culture as imbalanced as ours -- in which a few hoard billions while others starve, in which wars are fought for oil, in which children are shot and killed while gun manufacturers and politicians collect the blood money -- mercy, humanity, and vulnerability cannot be tolerated. Mercy and empathy are great threats to an unjust society.
-- Glennon Doyle, Untamed, p. 164-165
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